This Fable is designed to shew us how unreasonable many people are, who
live in continual fears and disquiet about the miserableness of their
condition. There is hardly any state of life great enough to satisfy
the wishes of an ambitious man; and scarcely any so mean, but may
supply the necessities of him that is moderate. There are few beings so
very wretched, that they cannot pick out others in a more deplorable
situation, and with whom they would not change cases. The rich man
envies the poor man’s health, without considering his wants; and the
poor man envies the other’s treasure, without considering his diseases.
The miseries of others should serve to add vigour to our minds, and
teach us to bear up against the load of lighter misfortunes. But what
shall we say to those who have a way of creating themselves panics from
the rustling of the wind, the scratching of a rat or a mouse behind the
hangings, the fluttering of a moth, or the motion of their own shadow
by moon-light! Their whole life is as full of alarms as that of a Hare,
and they never think themselves so easy as when, like the timorous
folks in the Fable, they meet with a set of creatures as fearful as
themselves.
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