This Fancy is a Lash upon Those that set up to Live above their Quality
and Fortune, and pretend to spend Penny for Penny with men of Twenty
times their Estate, and therefore must needs Burst in the Conclusion!
But Pride and Ambition Pushes men forward, not only to Extravagances,
but Impossibilities, though to the Certain Undoing of the Weaker and the
Meaner: When they come to Vie Power and Expence with Those that are too
High and too many for them.
Men that would be Bigger then God has made them, must e’en Expect to fall
to Nothing. This Affectation strikes upon All the Weaknesses that Pride,
Envy, or Ambition can fancy to it self, provided always that we do not
take Emulation for Envy. In One Word, when men’s Hearts and Thoughts are
puff’d up into a Desire of Things Unnatural, the Tumour is Incurable. But
they are Weak Minds commonly that are Tainted with This Evil. They take
False Measures, both of themselves, and of Others, without considering
the Limits, Bulk, Fortune, Ability, Strength, _&c._ or in truth, the
very Nature of the Things, Matters, or Person in Question. They set up
Competitors for Learning, Power, Estate, Policy; They Censure their
Betters, Despise their Equals, and Admire Themselves: But their Greatness
all this while, is only in Imagination, and they make All fly with the
_Frog_ at last, by Straining to be Bigger then they Are, and Bigger then
’tis possible for them to Be.