Disuontent, Emblem of
Illustration★★★It is like ink poured into water, which fills the whole fountain full of blackness. It casts a cloud over the mind, and renders it more occupied about the evil which disquiets it, than about the means of removing it. Feltham. $062. DISCONTENT, Error of, The great error of our nature is, not to know where to stop, not to be satisfied with any reasonable acquirement; not to compound with our condition; but to lose all we have gained by an insatiable pursuit after more.
Burke. S¥63. DISCONTENT, Incurable, An ass, belonging to a gardener, having little to eat and much to do, besought Jupiter to release him from the gardener’s service, and give him another master. Jupiter, angry at his discontent, made him over to a potter.
He had now heavier burdens to carry than before, and again appealed to Jupiter to relieve him, who accordingly contrived that he should be sold to a tanner. The ass having now fallen into worse hands than ever, and daily observing how his master was employed, exclaimed with a groan, “Alas, wretch that I am! it had been better for me to have remained content with my former masters, for now I see that my present owner not only works me harder while living, but will not even spare my hide when I am dead!”
Aesop.
The point
Three linked emblems show discontent as a poison that darkens the mind and an insatiable pursuit that never learns from experience.