Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/103

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Fables of the Ax-Handle, and the Wedge, erve to Precaution us not to put our elves Needlely upon an After Game, but to Weigh before hand what we Say, and Do. We hould have a Care how we Arm our Enemies againt our Selves; for there's Nothing goes Nearer a Man than to be Undone by his Own Improvidence; and Nothing afterward more Ridiculous, then to Blame Fortune for our own Faults: Though we are o Fram'd by Nature, in repeft of our Souls and Bodies, that One Part of a Man is till Wounded by the Other. Nothing o much Troubled the Eagle and the Thruh, as the Thought of aiting to their own Detruction.

There's No living in This World without an Exchange of Civil Offices, and the Need we have One of Another, goes a Great Way toward the Making of us Love One Another. How is this Amity, and Communication to be entertain'd now, but by the Commerce of Giving and Receiving? Reaon, and Experience, are Sufficient to convince us of the Neceity of uch a Correpondence; And this Fiction of the Axe and the Forret, and o of the Tree and the Wedge, hews us the Danger of it too, if it be not Manag'd with a Provident Repect to All the Niceties of Circumtance, and Contingency in the Cae. People have got a Cutom, 'tis true, of Computing upon the Preent Need, and Value of Things, without ever heeding the Conequences of them: As if all our Askings, and our Grantings were to be Governed by the Standard of the Market. 'Tis o pityful a Bus'nes, ays One, and it was o mall a Thing, ays Another; And yet this Pityful Bunes, and this Small Thing proves at lat to be as much as a Man's Life, Honor, and Etate is Worth. Alas! What's a Handle for an Axe, out of a whole Forret! What's the Writing of a Man's Name, or the aying Ay, or No to a Quetion? And yet the very Safety and Honour of our Prince and Country, and the Summ of our Well-being lies many a time at Stake upon the Iue of doing either the One or the Other. Nay and let the People we have to do withal be never o Jut and Honet, it is yet a Temerity, and a Folly Inexcuable, to Deliver up our elves Needlely into Anothers Power: For He that does any thing Rahly, mut: be taken in Equity of Contruction to do it willingly: For he was Free to Deliberate or Not : 'Tis Good Advice, to Conider, Firt, what the Thing is that is Deired. 2. The Character of the Peron that Asks. 3. What ue may be made on't to the Detriment of him that Grants the Requet, and o to Reolve how far in Duty, Humanity, Prudence, Jutice, and Repect, we are to Comply with it. Whereoever there is a Moral Right on the One Hand, No Secondary Interet can Dicharge it on the Other. A Pris'ner upon Parole mut urrender himelf upon Demand, though he Die for't. A Man may Contribute to his own Ruin Several Ways; but in Caes not to be Foreeen, and o not to be Prevented, it may be his Misfortune, and the Man not to blame. We are not to omit Precaution however, for fear an Ill Ue hould be made of Thoe Things that we do, even with a Good Intention; but we are till to Ditinguih betwixt what may Poibly, and what will Probably be done, according to the Belt Meaures we can take of the End of Asking; for there would be No Place left for the Functions of Humane Society, if the Poibility of Abuing a Kindnes, hould wholly Divert us from the Exercie of Charity and Good Nature. There may be Great Michief Wrought yet, without any thing of a