Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/142

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Certain Starr-Gazer had the Fortune, in the very Height of his Celetial Obervations, to tumble into a Ditch: A ober Fellow paing by, pave him a piece of Wholeome Counel. Friend, ays he, Make a Right Ue of Your Preent Mifortune; and pray, for the Future, let the Starrs go on quietly in their Coures, and do you look a little Better to the Ditches.

erves for a Reproof to the Ignorance and Confidence of Figure-Flingers, Starr-Gazers, that pretend to Foretell the Fortunes of Kingdoms and States, and yet have no Foreight at all in what concerns Themelves.

The Moral of thee Fables trikes upon the Vanity and Arrogance of Empyricks and Impotors Themelves, and upon the Folly of the Fond Believers of them. The Caution holds alo againt Unlawful Curioities; Sickly, and Supertitious Fancyes and Dreams; Fore-bodings of Ill Luck; as the Croing of a Hare, the Spilling of Salt, &c. This Humour, let it look never o Little, and Silly, (as it paes many times only for Frolique and Banter) is One yet of the mot Pernicious Snares in Humane Lie; when it comes once to get Poeion, and to Gain Credit; Epecially among Women and Children, where the Imagination is trong in the One, and the Dipoition as Plyant as Wax for any Impreion, in the other. Wherefore, of All Things in This World, Care is to be Taken, that they get not a Hankering after Thee Juggling Atrologers, Gypsies, Wizzards, Fortune-Tellers, Conjurers, Quacks, Cunning Women, &c. To ay Nothing of the Fooleries of Fortune-Books, and a Hundred other Vulgar Wayes of Enquiry into the Event of Amours, Marriages, Life and Death, Travel, Play, or the like; which is all but a Tincture of the ame Capital Infirmity. If thee Pretenders were not better Supported by the Simplicity, and Devotion of the Inquiitive Fooles that Conult Thoe Oracles, then they are by any Congruity of Premies and Concluions or by the Ordinary Way of Tracing Caues into their Effects, the Trade would not find ’em Bread; for there's No Proportion at all betwixt the Meanes, and the End. Not but that the Things they eem to Predict, come many times to pas; Yet till the nearer the Mark in their Conjecturcs, the more upicious is the Profeion on the One Hand, and the more Dangerous is the Credulity on the Other: For Thoe People that take upon them to Reolve uch Doubts, Scruples, and Difficulties, as are not to be known by any Natural Proces of Reaoning; and thoe Men that will be Prying