Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/13

The PREFACE. for either Reproof, or Councel, in Direct Terms. They Hate any Man that's but Concious of their Wickednes, and their Miery is like the Stone in the Bladder; There are Many Things Good for't, but there's No Coming at it; and neither the Pulpit, the Stage, nor the Pres, ''Dares o much as Touch upon't. How much are we Oblig'd then, to Thoe Wie, Good Men, that have furnih'd the World with o ure, and o Pleaant an Expedient, for the Removing of All Thee Difficulties! And to Æop, in the Firt Place, as the Founder, and Original Author, or Inventer of This Art of Schooling Mankind into Better Manners; by Minding Men of their Errors without Twitting them for what's Amis, and by That Means Flahing the Light of their Own Conciences in their Own Faces! We are brought Naturally enough, by the Judgment we pas upon the Vices and Follies of our Neighbour, to the Sight and Sene of our Own; and Epecially, when we are led to the Knowledge of the Truth of Matters by Significant Types, and Proper Reemblances, for we are much more Affected with the Images of things, then with the True Reaon ''of them. Men that are Shot-free againt All 'the Attaques of Honour, Concience, Shame, Good Faith, Humanity, or Common Jutice, have yet ome Weak ide or other, like Achilles's Heel, that was never dipt; and This Contrivance of Application, by Hints, and Glances, is the Only way under the Heavens to Hit it. [Who hall ay to a King, What Dot, thou?] comes up to the very Stres of This Topique. There's no Meddling with Princes, either by Text, or Argument. Morality is not the Province of a Cabinet-Councel: And Ghotly Fathers Signify no more then Spiritual Bug-bears, in the Cae of an Unaccountable Priviledge. Tell the Houe of Irael of their Sins, and the Houe of Jacob of their Trangreions: was a Guide, Undoubtedly, like an Old Almanack, for the Tear'twas Writ in; but Change of Times and Humours, calls for New Meaures and Manners; and what cannot be done by the Dint of Authority, or Perwaion, in the Chappel, or in the Cloet, mut be brought about by the Side-Wind of a Lecture from the Fields, and the Forets. As the Fable of the Raging Lyon Preaches Caution, and Moderation, to the Extravagances of Cruel, and Ambitious Rulers, by hewing them that Tyranny is the Scourge of Humane Nature, in Oppoition to All the Bleings of a Well Order'd Government; and that they do but Plague other People, to their Own Infamy, and Ruine. The Old Lyon in Digrace, Reads a Leon to us of the Improvidence, and the Deperate Conequences of a Riotous, and a Careles Youth. The Fox in the Well, holds forth to us upon the Chapter of a Late Repentance. The Frogs Petitioning for a King, bids People have a care of Struggling with Heaven for they know not what. It is Certainly True that the mot Innocent Illutrations of This Quality may lie open to a Thouand Abues and Mitakes, by a Ditorted Mi-application of them to