Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/113

Rh man should make them his choice, for their own sake, although it were in his power. Would any of you, who are in health and strength of body, with moderate food and raiment earned by your own labour, rather choose to be in the rich man's bed, under the torture of the gout, unable to take your natural rest, or natural nourishment, with the additional load of a guilty conscience, reproaching you for injustice, oppressions, covetousness, and fraud? No; but you would take the riches and power, and leave behind the inconveniencies that attend them; and so would every man living. But that is more than our share, and God never intended this world for such a place of rest as we would make it; for the Scripture assureth us that it was only designed as a place of trial. Nothing is more frequent than a man to wish himself in another's condition; yet he seldom doth it without some reserve: he would not be so old; he would not be so sickly: he would not be so cruel; he would not be so insolent; he would not be so vicious; he would not be so oppressive; so griping; and so on. Whence it is plain, that in their own judgment, men are not so unequally dealt with as they would at first sight imagine: for, if I would not change my condition with another man, without any exception or reservation at all, I am in reality more happy than he.

Secondly, you of the meaner sort are subject to fewer temptations than the rich; and therefore your vices are more unpardonable. Labour subdueth your appetites to be satisfied with common things; the business of your several callings filleth up your whole time; so that idleness, which is the bane and destruction of virtue, doth not lead you into the bourhood