It is elegantly fabled by Tythonus, that being exceedingly beloved by
Aurora, she petitioned Jupiter that he might prove immortal, thereby to
secure herself the everlasting enjoyment of his company; but through
female inadvertence she forgot to add, that he might never grow old; so
that, though he proved immortal, he became miserably worn and consumed
with age, insomuch that Jupiter, out of pity, at length transformed him
to a grasshopper.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems to contain an ingenious description of
pleasure; which at first, as it were in the morning of the day, is so
welcome, that men pray to have it everlasting, but forget that satiety
and weariness of it will, like old age, overtake them, though they
think not of it; so that at length, when their appetite for pleasurable
actions is gone, their desires and affections often continue; whence
we commonly find that aged persons delight themselves with the
discourse and remembrance of the things agreeable to them in their
better days. This is very remarkable in men of a loose, and men of a
military life; the former whereof are always talking over their amours,
and the latter the exploits of their youth; like grasshoppers, that
show their vigor only by their chirping.