And yet there is no such thing as satiety; desire keeps pace with the increase of wealth, and greed is as active as ever. Scilicet improbae Crescunt divitiae: tamen Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei. Carm. III., 24, 62-4. Becky's greed pursues her until she becomes an adventuress at the gaming-table; old Osborne's until he has broken the heart of Amelia and her father and ruined his own peace; Ethel's all but sacrifices her happiness and Clive's; Lady Clara Newcome's life is a wreck because of her greedy relatives, who force her into a marriage with Barnes; Pendennis narrowly escapes the toils on account of his greed; Barry Lyndon knows no law but his own greed; the Castlewoods grovel at the fect of the Baroness and cheat their Virginia kinsman at play, impelled by greed. All are ever pursuing, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but never satisfied. The Lessons of Life. Here the subject naturally shades from a treatment of Horace's and Thackeray's objects of satire to their outlook upon life---its sadness and its happiness---its lessons. It is not only wealth in the pursuit of which men engage, and the attainment of which leaves the heart still unsatisfied. The whole lesson of the author of Vanity Fair is the vanity of human wishes. All of his characters are engaged in the pursuit of some coveted prize---social station, honor in the field, in the council-chamber, family alliances for the sake of wealth or title, or perhaps merely love, and quiet and homely happiness. It is Horace over again: Quemvis media elige turba, Aut ob avaritiam aut misera ambitione laborat. |