Of men of dignity and mice of taste;
Traps, dangers, terrors are alike their lot:
Scar’d if they ’scape, and worry’d if they’re caught.
Reflection.
How infinitely superior are the delights of a private life to the noise and bustle of a public one! Innocence, security, meditation, good air, health, and unbroken rest, are the blessings of the one; while the rages of lust and wine, noise, hurry, circumvention, falsehood, treachery, confusion, and ill health, are the constant attendants of the other.
The splendour and luxury of a court are but a poor recompense for the slavish attendances, the invidious competitions, and the mortal disappointments that accompany it. The uncertain favour of Princes, and the envy of those who judge by hearsay or appearance, without either reason or truth, make even the best sort of court lives miserable, to say nothing of the innumerable temptations, vices, and excesses of a life of pomp and pleasure. Let a man but set the pleasing of his palate against the surfeits of gluttony and excess; the starving of his mind against a pampered carcase; the restless importunities of tale-bearers and back-friends against fair words and professions, only from the teeth outwards; let him, I say, but set the one in balance against the other, and he shall find himself miserable, even in the very height of his delights. To say all in a word: Let him but set the comforts of a life spent in noise, formality, and tumult, against the blessings of a retreat with competency and freedom, and then cast up his account.
What man, then, that is not stark mad, will voluntarily expose himself to the imperious brow-beatings and scorns of great men! To have a dagger struck to his heart in an embrace! To be torn to pieces by calumny; nay, to be a knave in his own defence! For the honester, the more dangerous in a vicious age, and where it is a crime not to be like the company. Men of that character are not to be read and understood by their words, but by their interests; their promises and protestations are no longer binding than while they are profitable to them.
After all, to keep the fable more closely in view, let a man, with the Country Mouse, reflect on the peace and safety of rural retirement, and prefer, if he can, the insecurity, noise, and hurry of a more exalted fortune.
