They who are of such craving impatient tempers, that they cannot live
contented when fortune has blessed them with a constant and continued
sufficiency, deserve even to be deprived of what they have. And this has
been the case of many ambitious and covetous men, who, by making an
essay to grow very rich at once, have missed what they aimed at, and
lost what they had before. But this comes so near the sense of the
forty-seventh fable, that the same application may very well serve for
both. If any thing further can be couched in this, it may possibly be
intended to show us the unreasonableness and inconvenience of being
solicitous about what may happen hereafter, and wanting to pry into the
womb of futurity: which if we could do, all we should get for our pains
would be, to spoil our pleasures by anticipation, and double our
misfortunes by a previous sense and apprehension of them. There are some
things that entertain and delight us very agreeably while we view them
at a proper distance; which, perhaps, would not stand the test of a too
near inspection. Beauty, being only the external form of a thing which
strikes the eye in a pleasing manner, is a very thin glossy being, and,
like some nice paintings of a peculiar composition, will not well bear
even to be breathed on: to preserve our good opinion of it, we must not
approach too close; for if, like the man in the fable, we have a mind to
search for a treasure within, we may not only fail of our expectations
there, but even lose the constant relish we enjoyed from a remoter
contemplation.