272 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



THAT portion of mankind, whose inordinate de- 

 sires push them on to stick at nothing" in acquiring" 

 wealth, are seldom the most happy; for covetous- 

 ness, which never produced one noble sentiment, 

 often urges its votaries to break through the rules 

 of justice, and then deprives them of the expected 

 fruits of their iniquity. Besides, great riches and 

 care are almost inseparable; and there is often a 

 quiet and content attending upon people of mode- 

 rate circumstances, to which the wealthy man is an 

 utter stranger. It has happened, even to monarchs, 

 that their inroads on the possessions of others have 

 tended to the detriment of the aggressor, who has 

 been obliged to resign the rich spoils obtained by 

 unjustifiable hostilities, and to refund the ill-gotten 

 wealth with a very bad grace : a punishment which 

 Providence has wisely annexed to acts of violence 

 and fraud, as the best security of the possessions 

 of the just and virtuous, against the attempts of the 

 wicked. Some men, from creeping in the lowest 

 stations of life, have in process of time reached the 

 greatest places, and grown so bulky by pursuing 

 their insatiate appetite for money, that when they 

 would have retired, they found themselves too 

 opulent and full to get off. There has been no 

 expedient for them to creep out, till they were 

 squeezed and reduced in some measure to their 

 primitive littleness. They that fill themselves with 

 that which is the property of others, should always 

 be so served before they are suffered to escape. 



