A _Country-man_ and _Jupiter_.
A Poor Plain Fellow was so Dazled and Transported with the Pomp, the
Splendor, the Plenty, State and Luxury that Great Men live in, that
it was the First Petition of his Daily Litany to _Jupiter_, to make
him a _Lord_. _Jupiter_ found he could not be Quiet for him, and bad
_Mercury_ carry him Two Curious Baskets with Honour and Money in them.
They were both cover’d, the one with Purple, the other with Gold, and
_Mercury_ was Order’d to let the Man Open and Examin them as strictly as
he pleas’d, but to bid him have a care not to meddle with them Rashly,
for fear of the worst. The Countryman was so Charm’d with the Present
at First Sight, that he took it away with him by _Content_, without
asking any Questions. But when he came afterward to consider at leisure
the Cares, Anxieties, Fears, Doubts, and all manner of Troubles and
Diseases that were inseparably to go along with his Bags and Dignities;
he found himself much more Uneasie now then he was before; and that he
had Sacrificed the Peace of his very Soul, to the Vanity of his Eye and
Appetite.
The MORAL.
_’Tis not for a Wise Man to set his Heart upon Gay and Glittering
Appearances. The Devil himself Baits all his Hooks with Pomp, Lusts and
Pleasures: and the very Glory of the Outside, makes the Contents the more
suspicious for’t._