SECT. VI.
XVIII. Those, who are under the dominion of ambition and avarice, invert the order and nature of things; placing the end in the means of attaining it. They desire more, only to hoard more, and to have more power, merely for the sake of domineering more. But how does it fare with such people? why that they are always unhappy; because the hunger and thirst of their desires is never appeased, but either remains constantly in the same state, or else proceeds to acquire fresh augmentations. The weight of honour and riches has the same effect on the human heart, which weights have upon a clock; the greater they are, they cause the machine to be more violently agitated, and to move with greater impetuosity. The passions go on to display a succession of cavities, as the first openings are continued to be filled up. At first, the thirst can be satisfied with a fountain; after having grown into a dropsy, it requires a river to satisfy it, and after having swallowed the river, it craves the ocean: Ecce absorbebit fluvium, & non mirabitur. Alexander in his first schemes of ambition, had nothing further in view, than the destruction of Thebes, and the conquest of Thrace and Illyricum; having compleated this, he took it into his head to subdue the Asiatic Empire, and when he was in quiet possession of that, upon hearing a philosopher say, there were more worlds, he wept with grief, because that being the case, his ambition could not be satiated with the conquest of one only; which caused Juvenal to sing as follows:
Unus Pellæo juveni non sufficit orbis.
XIX. Those who endeavour to acquire riches to make use of them, and to employ them in pleasures, seem to have the advantage with respect to temporal convenience. For who can dispute the happiness of him, who being master of great riches, makes them the tributaries of his appetites? so the world judges, and the world deceives itself. The most able man that the world ever produced, and the best qualified to give an opinion in this matter from his own experience, was Solomon, as there was not upon earth, a man who was richer, or even so rich, as him, nor did any man expend his riches with more prodigality to procure enjoyments; in the doing of which, he had this advantageous circumstance in his favour, to wit, his great wisdom and knowledge of nature; which taught him the means that were the best adapted, and the most likely to furnish delight, and which was the best method, of applying objects to enchant the senses: I say, hear this man’s sentiments on the subject, who himself confesses, that he had given a loose to his pleasures, and gratified them with every thing their voracity craved: Omnia, quæ desideraverunt oculi mei, non negavi eis: nec prohibui cor meum, quin omni voluptate frueretur. And what did he meet with in this sea of delights? nothing but bitter waters: he found that all was vanity and vexation of spirit: Vidi in omnibus vanitatem, & afflictionem animi; and he found it so to such an extreme degree, as to make his life a burthen to him: Idcirco tæduit me vitæ meæ.
XX. This is exalted and brilliant fortune; and so exalted, that the fortune of no man ever rose to a more sublime degree of altitude. I ask now, if the most miserable man in the world can find his heart placed in a state of greater anguish, than when he endures the irksome sensation, of loathing, or being tired of his existence? We know that Job used no other phrase, to express the profound agony which his singular calamity had brought upon him: Tædet animam meam vitæ meæ.
XXI. What Solomon says is infallible, because the church has received that book as canonical. But though it should be confessed, that the truth of this matter is an article of faith, it also appears mysterious: for how could so much bitterness, be contained in the greatest delights? Solomon did not chuse to decipher this enigma, although his abilities would have permitted him to do it with the greatest ease. Let us see if I can hit upon its explanation, and I think I shall.