352 FABLES. 



we are endeavouring to make off with it. Great 

 wealth has many cares annexed to it, with which 

 the poor and needy are not afflicted. A com- 

 petency to supply the necessities of nature, and 

 the wants of old age, is indeed to be desired ; but 

 we should rather endeavour to contract our wants 

 than to multiply them, and not too eagerly grasp 

 at the augmentation of our possessions, which 

 will increase our cares by adding to our danger. 

 Persons of small fortune have as much reason to 

 be contented as the rich: their situation is full 

 as happy, considered altogether, for if they are 

 deprived of some of the gratifications which the 

 rich enjoy, they are also exempted from many 

 troubles and uneasinesses necessarily cleaving to 

 riches. 



