XXVIII. If we would weigh the pleasures of one and the other state, we should attend to the remark of Seneca before cited: Inspice pauperum, & divitum vultus. You will observe the poor, chearful in their conversation, laughing from their hearts at their rustic balls, and in all appearance truly happy: Sæpius pauper, & fidelius ridet. On the contrary, you will see the rich, even at their festive meetings, seem tired and surfeited. At least, happiness does not shine so brilliant in their countenances, as in those of the poor.
XXIX. All these disproportions, spring from, or grow out of one general principle, which is this; nature left to herself, is contented with a little, but by attempting to polish her, you fashion her into a fantastical lady, who craves every thing, and despises every thing. A human heart with three ventricles, in the year 1699, was presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, as the most monstrous production that had ever been seen; but morally and politically speaking, it is a monster we see every day. The human heart, naturally contains but two large cavities; but if you fill these with worldly goods, a succession of others will begin to open, and others still without end. Pleasure and delight, are nothing to a man who does not consider and feel them as such, and no man considers that as a regale, which he is used and accustomed to; or which is adapted and familiar to his own sphere of life. Therefore delicate food, is delicate to him only, who has been used to eat plain victuals; but dainties, are familiar and common things to the man who has been accustomed to feed on them, and therefore, he craves something more exquisite. Even variety itself, to him who is used to vary his objects every day, that they may tally with his inclinations, loses all the enchantment which it originally contained. A poor man tastes more pleasure in feeding on a common fish at his own homely board, than Caius Hirtius, in eating with great pomp, his most regaling Murenas; and he is more happy, when he adds to his inheritance a foot of land, than Alexander was, when he added to his conquests the City of Tyre.
SECT. IX.
XXX. If we were to compare the anxieties incident to the one and the other state, as we have done the pleasures, we should find, that by much the greatest load of the first, would rest on the shoulders of the rich; either from the greater sensibility of the subjects, or from the greater magnitude, or multitude of their cares. The rich are of a delicate texture, liable to be moved and disturbed with every blast, or made of sonorous metal, which complains loudly at the gentlest touch. They may be compared to a well at Chiapa, a Province in New Spain, from which, by throwing in a small stone, you raise a horrible tempest. Hence the furious perturbations which in the opulent, are produced by slight causes. The Sultan Mahomed the Second, was seized with such a barbarous rage upon missing a melon out of his garden, that he ordered the stomachs of fourteen pages to be opened, to discover who had eaten it. And Otho Antonio, Duke of Urbino, ordered one of his servants to be burnt alive, for having neglected to wake him at the time he had appointed.
XXXI. The toils of the great are also more in number, than those of the poor. The larger the bulk of a man, the fairer mark he is for his enemy to hit; and the greater the amplitude of his fortune, the larger the space is exposed to the wounds of adversity. The rich are high towers, the poor humble cottages, and the ray of lightning, oftner discharges its fury on the tower, than on the cottage. One of the greatest temporal evils that can befal a man, is a broken constitution, as the greatest temporal blessing, is a robust state of health. And there is no doubt, but that with equal stamina, a poor man is more healthy than a rich one, because the last injures his health by his excesses, and the other, preserves his by his sobriety. Of what avail are all a great man’s riches to him, when he is oppressed by a fit of the gout? (and the gout, by the way, is a distemper which seldom attacks the poor.) I say what is he the better for them, if they cannot procure him a remedy for the evil, nor even obtain him the least ease or relief? While the fit lasts, he suffers pain; and when it is over, he endures the terrors and apprehensions of fresh attacks. Solomon pronounced the following sentence, which is applicable to all the rich: Quid prodest possessori, nisi quod cernat divitias oculis suis? Of what other use are riches to a man who possesses vast treasures, than to feast his eyes with the sight of them. But the sentence is more strongly applicable, to an opulent man of a bad constitution, who is constantly ailing.
XXXII. A great man has more cares, and consequently more to vex him, than an humble one. More people are envious of him, and consequently he has more enemies. He is desirous of aggrandizing his fortune still more, and grieves at every little obstacle he meets with; which he considers as a steep rock in the way of his pursuits. From those below him, he expects more homage; and one only, as in the case of Mordecai and Haman, refusing to bend the knee to him, is sufficient to make him unhappy. He is anxious to be upon an equality with his superiors, and when he sees any one, whom he looks upon as his equal, or his inferior, step before him, he can hardly contain himself. There was a famous painter, named Francis of France, rich, both in possessions and fame. When this man was at Bolognia, he saw a figure of Saint Cecilia, which had been painted by Raphael of Urbino, for a church in that city; and seeing, and being sensible, how much he was outdone in the use of the pencil, by that incomparable artist, it so affected him, that he fell sick and died in a few days. It cannot be said with truth, that ever a poor man died from such a cause, or of such an affection.
XXXIII. Fears and apprehensions, in which are contained the most severe martyrdom of life; because by means of them, people endure all future, and all possible evils, have their very nests in the hearts of the great. He who is oppressed with evils, is always grieving; he who is possessed of goods, is always fearing: and what is more afflicting than perpetual terror? The dangers which threaten a great man, are in proportion to the possible cases, of others enriching themselves by despoiling, or murdering him; and though these are many, in his imagination they are still more; so that riches are acquired by toil, and preserved by anxiety. The inhabitants of Macasar, an Island in the Indian Sea, have a custom of drawing some of their teeth, and putting gold or silver ones in the place of them, which practice, cannot fail to be troublesome and hurtful to them. Can any thing favour stronger of barbarism, than the suffering a voluntary pain, only to gain an inconvenience? Those fall into the same mistake, who pant for, and are anxious in their pursuit after riches. They draw their teeth, that is, they undergo great suffering in order to acquire more wealth; and in the room of those they have parted with, they get teeth of gold and silver, yes, but these are teeth, which in the end, will feed on, and gnaw their own hearts. It is very remarkable, that in the age of gold and silver, (according to the description given, and the division made of the four ages by the poets,) there was no gold or silver to be met with, but these metals made their appearance in the age of iron. Thus Ovid, speaking of this age:
———— Itum est in viscera terræ
Quasque recondiderat, Stygiisque admoverat umbris
Effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum.