A _Husbandman_ turn’d _Soldier_ and _Merchant_.
Oh the Endless Misery of the Life I lead! cries the Moiling _Husbandman_,
to spend all my Days in Ploughing, Sowing, Digging, and Dunging, and to
make Nothing on’t at last! Why now in a _Soldier_’s Life, there’s Honour
to be got, and One Lucky Hit sets up a Man for Ever. Faith, I’ll e’en put
off my Stock, Get me a Horse and Arms, and Try the Fortune of the War.
Away he goes; Makes his Push; Stands the Shock of a Battel, and Compounds
at last for the Leaving of a Leg or an Arm behind him, to go Home again.
By this Time he has had his Bellyful of _Knight-Errantry_, and a New
Freak takes him in the Crown. He might do better, he fancies, in the Way
of a _Merchant_. This Maggot has no sooner set him agog; but he gets him
a Ship Immediately; Freights her, and so away to Sea upon Adventure:
Builds Castles in the Air, and Conceits Both the _Indies_ in his Coffers,
before he gets so much as Clear of the Port. Well! and What’s the End
of All This at last? He falls into Foul Weather, among Flats and Rocks,
where Merchant, Vessel, Goods, and All are lost in One Common Wreck.
The MORAL.
_A Rambling Levity of Mind is commonly Fatal to us._