to his quiet, than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.
But representations thus refined exhibit no adequate idea of the guilt of pretended friendship; of artifices by which followers are attracted only to decorate the retinue of pomp, and swell the shout of popularity, and to be dismissed with contempt and ignominy, when their leader has succeeded or miscarried, when he is sick of show, and weary of noise. While a man infatuated with the promises of greatness, wastes his hours and days in attendance and solicitation, the honest opportunities of improving his condition pass by without his notice; he neglects to cultivate his own barren soil, because he expects every moment to be placed in regions of spontaneous fertility, and is seldom roused from his delusion, but by the gripe of distress which he cannot resist, and the sense of evils which cannot be remedied.
The punishment of Tantalus in the infernal regions, affords a just image of hungry servility, flattered with the approach of advantage, doomed to lose it before it comes into his reach, always within a few days of felicity, and always sinking back to his former wants.
Καὶ μὴν Τάνταλον εἰσεῖδον χαλέπ' ἄλγε' ἔχοντα,
Ἑσταότ' ἐν λίμνῃ· ἡ δὲ προσέπλαζε γενείῳ.
ΣτεῦΤο δὲ διψάων, πιέειν δ' οὐκ εἶχεν ἑλέσθαι·
Ὁσσάκι γὰρ κύψει' ὁ γέρων πιέειν μενεαίνων,
Τοσσάχ' ὕδωρ ἀπολέσκετ' ἀναβροχέν, ἀμφὶ δὲ ποσσὶ
Γαῖα μέλαινα φάνεσκε, καταζήνασκε δὲ δαίμων.
Δένδρεα δ' ὑψιπέτηλα κατὰ κρῆθεν χέε καρπόν,
Ὄγχναι καὶ ῥοιαὶ καὶ μηλέαι ἀγλαόκαρποι
Συκέαι τε γλυκεραὶ καὶ ἐλαῖαι τηλεθόωσαι·
ΤῶΝ ὁπότ' ἰθύσει' ὁ γέρων ἐπὶ χερσὶ μάσασθαι,
Τὰς δ' ἄνεμος ῥίπτασκε ποτὶ νέφεα σκιόεντα.
