This is the situation in which I
wished to see thee. Every pang it wrings from thy heart, every
exclamation it forces from thy tongue, is solace to my thoughts, and
music to my ears. And wert thou vain and weak enough to imagine, that
riches would purchase thee every pleasure, that riches would furnish an
inexhaustible source of enjoyment? Of all mortal possessions they are
the most useless, mischievous, and baleful. The Gods, when the Gods are
willing to perfect a character of depravity, in order to make vice
consummately detestable, or to administer an exemplary punishment to
distinguished wickedness, bestow upon that man, as the last of curses,
and the most refined of tortures, extensive possessions and unbounded
riches. Indulge to the mistaken pride which these inspire, and wrap
thyself up in the littleness of thy heart.--But no, rise above them.
Suffer thy desires to wander into a larger and more dangerous field. Run
with open eyes into the mouth of that destruction that gapes to devour
thee! Why shouldst thou attend to the voice of destiny, to the immutable
laws of the Gods, and the curse that is suspended over thee? Be a man.
Bravely defy all that is most venerable, and all that is most
unchangeable. Oh how I long for thy ruin! How my heart pants for the
illustrious hour in which thy _palaces shall be crumbled down to the
dust of the balance, thy riches scattered, and thyself become an
unpitied, necessitous, miserable vagabond_! In the mean time,
remember, that riches like thine are not bestowed with u[n]reserving
hand, that commerce is not permitted with the shadows of darkness,
without some trifling fall to ill amid this immensity of uniform
happiness.
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