Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/215

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Upiter Appointed Mercury to make him a Compoition of Fraud and Hypocriie, and to give Every Artificer his Dole on’t, The Medicine was Prepar'd according to the Bill, and the Proportions duly Oberv’d, and Divided: Only there was a great deal too Much of it made, and the Overplus remain'd till in the Morter. Upon Examining the Whole Account, there was a Mitake it eems, in the Reck’ning; for the Taylors were forgott’n in the Catalogue: So that Mercury, for Brevity ake, gave the Taylors the Whole Quantity that was Left; and from hence comes the Old Saying; There’s Knavery in All Trades, but Mot in Taylors.

LYING and Couzening is a General Practice in the World, tho' it appears in ome Men, and in ome Trades, more then in other. Æop is till Introducing ome or other of the Gods, to Countenance the Corruptions of Fleh and Blood: And ince Cutom and Interet will have it to; that all Tradenen mut ue Fraud, more or les, even in their own Defence, the Practice being in ome ort o Neceary, 'tis not amis to bring in Jupiter vo jutifie it. But why is this Fale and Double Dealing apply'd to Trademen only, when it is Common to Mankind? And why among them, to Taylors above the Ret? when all the Bus'nes thar paes in this World betwixt Man and Man is Manag’d by Colluion and Deceit, in as High a Meaure: So that the Compoition might have been as well Prepar'd for Humane Nature. Are we not Fale,in Our Pretended Civilities, Formal Complements, and Repects; in our Confidences, and in our Profeions? Are we not Fale, in Promiing, and Breaking? Is not He that Robs me of my Good Name, a more Abominable Cheat, then He that Couzens me of a Yard of Damask? Is not He that Betrays me in his Arms, a more Detetable Wretch then He that Contents Himelf in the Way of his Trade, to Pick my Pocket? Without any more Words, we are All Jugglers in ome Kind, or in ome Degree or Other. But there's this to be aid for't yet, that we Play Foul by Conent. We Couzen in cue Words, and in our Actions; only we are Agreed upon’t, that uch and uch Forms of Civility, like ome Adulterate Quoins, hall pa Current for o Much. A Fahionable Impoture, or Hypocriie, hall be call’d Good