That portion of mankind, whose inordinate desires push them on to
stick at nothing in acquiring wealth, are seldom the most happy; for
covetousness, which never produced one noble sentiment, often urges
its votaries to break through the rules of justice, and then deprives
them of the expected fruits of their iniquity. Besides great riches and
care are almost inseparable; and there is often a quiet and content
attending upon people of moderate circumstances, to which the wealthy
man is an utter stranger. It has happened, even to monarchs, that their
inroads on the possessions of others have tended to the detriment of
the aggressor, who has been obliged to resign the rich spoils obtained
by unjustifiable hostilities, and to refund the ill-gotten wealth, with
a very bad grace: a punishment which Providence has wisely annexed to
acts of violence and fraud, as the best security of the possessions
of the just and virtuous, against the attempts of the wicked. Some
men, from creeping in the lowest stations of life, have in process of
time reached the greatest places, and grown so bulky by pursuing their
insatiate appetite for money, that when they would have retired, they
found themselves too opulent and full to get off. There has been no
expedient for them to creep out, till they were squeezed and reduced in
some measure to their primitive littleness. They that fill themselves
with that which is the property of others, should always be so served
before they are suffered to escape.
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