Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/384

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Here was a Bold Undertaking Pedant, Wager'd his Neck againt a certain Sum of Mony, that in Ten Years time he would Teach an As to Write, Read, and Chop Logick. His Friends called him a Thouand Mad-men for cating away his Life upon o Abolute an Impoibility. Pray Gentlemen (ays the Undertaker) have but a little Patience; for 'tis odds, that before the Term's out, either the Prince Dyes, (that's a Party to the Contract,) or the As Dyes, or the Adventurer Dyes, and then the Danger's over.

are ome Caes wherein a Man may Jutify ome ort of Shuffling and Evading, without any Offence to Honour or Good Faith; as in a cae for the Purpoe, where the gaining of Time, may be as much as a Man's Life or Etate is worth. Some Men are but one Remove from ome Aes, and the difficulty of Teaching the one, is next door to the impoibility of Teaching the other. The very Propoition is a Whimy Pleaant enough, to hew the Vanity of attempting to make a Philoopher of a Blockhead: Neither is it of a Quality to be undertood according to the Letter. So that in uch a cae, if a Man can but ave himelf by a Shift, or a Figure, 'tis all that can be deired; and the Conditions naturally implied, fall within the fair Equity of the Quetion. There are certain Bounds and Terms of Raillery that may very well tand with the Rules of Honety and Good Manners that is to ay, Where the Liberty carries neither Malice, Saucines, nor Ill Nature along with it: And the dicreet manage of uch a ort of Freedom, betwixt Jet and Earnet, Seaons the Entertainment of an Agreeable Converation. We honld ay to our elves in all our Ditrees upon the apprehenion of Temporal Difficulties to come, as this Pedant in the Fable did to his Relations and Companions; Let it be Bondage, Los of Friends, Beggery, Banihment, nay Death it elf, [This or that way Intervene.] It is an Unaccountable weaknes for a Man to put himelf upon the Torture at preent, for fear omebody ele hould Torment him Seven Years hence. Is it not enough for us to be Mierable when the time comes, unles we make our elves o Beforehand, and by Anticipation? When we have gone as far as Concience, Honour, Indutry, and Human Prudence can carry us, toward the preventing, or the averting of the Danger that threatens us, we are to remit the ret to Providence, and wait the good Pleaure