This is the Case of unreasonable, and Insatiable Desires; as in Love,
Ambition, and the Like; where People are still reaching at More and More,
till they lose all in the Conclusion.
There are more Meanings of _Substance_ and _Shadow_; of Mistaking One
for T’other; and Losing All by Chopping at More; then the bare Sense
and Letter of the _Dog_, the _Flesh_, and the _Image_ here in the
Fable. Under these Heads are comprehended all Inordinate Desires, Vain
Hopes, and Miserable Disappointments. What shall we say of those that
spend their Days in Gaping after Court-Favours and Preferments; Servile
Flatteries, and Slavish Attendances? That Live and Entertain themselves
upon Blessings in Vision? (For Fair Words and Promises, are no more than
Empty Appearances) What is all This, but Sacrificing a Mans Honour,
Integrity, Liberty, Reason, Body, Soul, Fortune, and All, for _Shadows_?
We place our Trust in Things that have no Being; Disorder our Minds,
Discompose our Thoughts, Entangle our Estates, and Sell our selves, in
One Word, for Bubbles. How wretched is the Man that does not know when
he’s Well, but passes away the Peace and Comfort of his Life, for the
Gratifying of a Fantastical Appetite, or Humour! Nay, and he Misses his
Aim, even in That too, while he Squanders away his interest, and Forfeits
his Discretion, in the Pursuit of One Vanity after Another. Ambition
is a Ladder that reaches from Earth to Heaven; and the First Round is
but so many Inches in a Mans way towards the Mounting of All the Rest.
He’s never well till he’s at the Top, and when he can go no Higher, he
must either Hang in the Air, or Fall; For in This Case, he has nothing
above him to Aspire to, nor any Foot-Hold left him to come down by.
Every Man has what’s Sufficient, at Hand, and in Catching at more then
he can carry away, he loses what he Had. Now there’s Ingratitude, as
well as Disappointment, in all these Rambling and Extravagant Motions:
Beside, that Avarice is always Beggerly; for He that Wants, has as good
as Nothing. The Desire of More and More, rises by a Natural Gradation
to Most, and after that, to All; Till in the Conclusion we find our
selves Sick and Weary of All that’s possible to be had; sollicitous for
something else, and then when we have spent our Days in the Quest of the
Meanest Things, and at the Feet too of the Worst of Men, we find at the
bottom of the Account, that all the Enjoyments under the Sun, are not
worth struggling for. What can be more Vainer now, then to Lavish out
our Lives and Fortunes in the Search and Purchase of Trifles; and at
the same time to lye Carking for the Unprofitable Goods of this World,
and in a restless Anxiety of Thought for what’s to come. The Folly, in
fine, of these Vexatious and Frivolous Pursuits, shews it self in all the
Transports of our Wild and Ungovern’d Affections.
Here is further set forth in this Emblem, All the Fabulous Torments of
Hell, even Above-Ground. Men that are Tainted with this Appetite are
ready to dye of _Thirst_, with _Tantalus_, and the Water running at
their very Lips. They are Condemn’d with the _Sisters_, to the Filling
of _Tubs_ with _Holes_ in ’em; which is but a Lively Figure of so much
Labor spent in Vain, upon the Gratifying of Unreasonable Desires. What’s
a Man’s Contending with Insuperable Difficulties, but the Rolling of
_Sisiphus’s Stone_ up the Hill, which is sure before hand, to Return
upon him again? What’s an Eternal Circulation of the same Things, as
well as the same Steps, without Advancing one Inch of Ground towards
his Journey’s End, but _Ixion_ in the _Wheel_? And all this while, with
Cares and Horrours at his Heart, like the _Vultur_ that’s Day and Night
Quarrying upon _Prometheus’s Liver_.
But after all that’s said upon this Subject, of our Mistake, and
Punishment, the Great Nicety will lye in Rightly Distinguishing betwixt
the _Substance_, and the _Shadow_; and in what degree of Preference the
one stands to the other. Now this must be according to _Epictetus’s_
Distribution of Matters, into _what we have in our own Power_; and
_what not_; and in Placing things Honest and Necessary, before other
Subordinate Satisfactions. _Æsop’s Dog_ here was in the Possession of
a very Good Breakfast, and he knew very well what he had in his Mouth;
but still, either out of Levity, Curiosity, or Greediness, he must be
Chopping at something else, that he neither wanted, nor Understood, till
he lost All for a _Shadow_; that is to say, for just nothing at All.