THE MAN AND HIS GOOSE.
A certain Man had a Goose, which laid him a golden egg every day. But not contented with this, which rather increased than abated his avarice, he was resolved to kill the Goose, and cut up her belly, that by so doing he might come at the inexhaustible treasure which he fancied she had within her. He did so, and to his great sorrow and disappointment, found nothing.
APPLICATION.
No passion can be a greater torment to those who are led by it, or more frequently mistakes its aim, than insatiable covetousness. It makes men blind to their present happiness, and conjures up ideal prospects of increasing felicity, which often tempt its deluded votaries to their ruin. Men who give themselves up to this propensity, know not how to be contented with the constant and continued sufficiency with which Providence may have blessed them: their minds are haunted with the prospect of becoming rich, and their impatient craving tempers are perpetually prompting them to try to obtain their object all at once. They lose all present enjoyment in remotely contemplating the future; and while they are shewing by their conduct how insensible they are to the bounty of Providence, they are at the same time laying the foundation of their own unhappiness.