A moderate fortune, with a quiet retirement in the country, is
preferable to the greatest affluence, attended with the care and the
perplexity of business. How often are we deceived by the specious
shows of splendour and magnificence; and what a poor exchange does he
make, who gives up ease and content in an humble situation, to engage
in difficulties, and encounter perils in affluence and luxury! The
ploughman in the field, who labours for his daily pittance, earns his
bread with less uneasiness and fatigue, than the man who haunts levees
to obtain wealth and preferment. Riches, properly used, are indeed
very conducive to ease and happiness; but if we leave any comfortable
situation to procure them, or abuse the possession of them by riot and
intemperance, we resign the end for the means, mistake the shadow for
the substance, and convert the instruments of good fortune into the
engines of anxiety and solicitude.
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