The moral of this fable is, that nobody looks after a man's affairs so
well as he himself. Servants, being but hirelings, seldom have the true
interest of their master at heart, but let things run on in a negligent
constant disorder; and this, generally, not so much for want of capacity
as honesty. Their heads are taken up with the cultivation of their own
private interest; for the service and promotion of which that of their
master is postponed, and often entirely neglected.
Few families are reduced to poverty and distress merely by their own
extravagance and indulgence in luxury: the inattention of servants
swells every article of expense in domestic oeconomy; and the retinue of
great men, instead of exerting their industry to conduce as far as
possible to the increase of their master's wealth, commonly exercise no
other office than that of locusts and caterpillars, to consume and
devour it.