XVIII. Those, who are under the dominion of ambition and avarice,
invert the order and nature of things; placing the end in the means
of attaining it. They desire more, only to hoard more, and to have
more power, merely for the sake of domineering more. But how does
it fare with such people? why that they are always unhappy; because
the hunger and thirst of their desires is never appeased, but either
remains constantly in the same state, or else proceeds to acquire fresh
augmentations. The weight of honour and riches has the same effect on
the human heart, which weights have upon a clock; the greater they
are, they cause the machine to be more violently agitated, and to move
with greater impetuosity. The passions go on to display a succession
of cavities, as the first openings are continued to be filled up. At
first, the thirst can be satisfied with a fountain; after having grown
into a dropsy, it requires a river to satisfy it, and after having
swallowed the river, it craves the ocean: _Ecce absorbebit fluvium, &
non mirabitur._ Alexander in his first schemes of ambition, had nothing
further in view, than the destruction of Thebes, and the conquest of
Thrace and Illyricum; having compleated this, he took it into his head
to subdue the Asiatic Empire, and when he was in quiet possession of
that, upon hearing a philosopher say, there were more worlds, he wept
with grief, because that being the case, his ambition could not be
satiated with the conquest of one only; which caused Juvenal to sing as
follows:
_Unus Pellæo juveni non sufficit orbis._
XIX. Those who endeavour to acquire riches to make use of them, and
to employ them in pleasures, seem to have the advantage with respect
to temporal convenience. For who can dispute the happiness of him,
who being master of great riches, makes them the tributaries of his
appetites? so the world judges, and the world deceives itself. The
most able man that the world ever produced, and the best qualified to
give an opinion in this matter from his own experience, was Solomon,
as there was not upon earth, a man who was richer, or even so rich,
as him, nor did any man expend his riches with more prodigality to
procure enjoyments; in the doing of which, he had this advantageous
circumstance in his favour, to wit, his great wisdom and knowledge of
nature; which taught him the means that were the best adapted, and
the most likely to furnish delight, and which was the best method,
of applying objects to enchant the senses: I say, hear this man’s
sentiments on the subject, who himself confesses, that he had given
a loose to his pleasures, and gratified them with every thing their
voracity craved: _Omnia, quæ desideraverunt oculi mei, non negavi eis:
nec prohibui cor meum, quin omni voluptate frueretur._ And what did he
meet with in this sea of delights? nothing but bitter waters: he found
that all was vanity and vexation of spirit: _Vidi in omnibus vanitatem,
& afflictionem animi_; and he found it so to such an extreme degree, as
to make his life a burthen to him: _Idcirco tæduit me vitæ meæ._
XX. This is exalted and brilliant fortune; and so exalted, that the
fortune of no man ever rose to a more sublime degree of altitude. I
ask now, if the most miserable man in the world can find his heart
placed in a state of greater anguish, than when he endures the irksome
sensation, of loathing, or being tired of his existence? We know that
Job used no other phrase, to express the profound agony which his
singular calamity had brought upon him: _Tædet animam meam vitæ meæ._
XXI. What Solomon says is infallible, because the church has received
that book as canonical. But though it should be confessed, that
the truth of this matter is an article of faith, it also appears
mysterious: for how could so much bitterness, be contained in the
greatest delights? Solomon did not chuse to decipher this enigma,
although his abilities would have permitted him to do it with the
greatest ease. Let us see if I can hit upon its explanation, and I
think I shall.