Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/460

410

Here pas'd a great many Bitter VVords once upon a time betwixt Joy and Sorrow; inomuch that they Mov'd the Court upon it by Conent, and made a Chancery Caue on't. Upon a Fair and a Full Hearing, the Judge found ome colour of Equity on Both Sides, and would fain have made ’em Friends again. You hould confider, ays he, how near y’are a-kin, and what a Scandal, 'tis to have thee Heats and Squabbles among Relations: But all this went in at One Ear, and out at T'other: So that when he aw there was no to be done, he pas'd this Sentence upon them, that ince they would not go Hand in Hand Amicably of Themelves, they hould be Link'd together in a Chain; and Each of them in his Turn hould be perpetually Treading upon the Heel of the Other; and not a Pin Matter then which went Foremot.

is the lot of Mankind to be Happy and Mierable by Turns. The Widom of Nature will have it fo 5 and it is exceedingly for our Advantage that o it hould be. There's nothing Pure under the Heavens, and the Rule holds in the Chances of Life, as well as in the Elements: Beide, that uch an Abtracted Simplicity, (if any uch thing there were,) would be neither Nourihing to us, nor Profitable. By the Mediation of this Mixture, we have the Comfort of Hope to upport us in our Ditrees, and the Apprehenions of a Change to keep a Check upon us in the very Huff of our Greatnes and Glory: So that by this Viciitude of Good and Evil, we are kept teady in our Philoophy, and in our Religion. The One Minds us of God’s Ommipotence and Julice; the Other of his Goodnes and Mercy: The One tells us, that there’s No Truting to our own Strength; the Other Preaches Faith and Reignation in the Propect of an Over-ruling Providence that takes Care of us. What is it but Sicknes that gives us a Tate of Health? Bondage the Rellih of Liberty? And what but the Experience of Want that Enhances the Value of Plenty? That which we call Eae is only an Indolency or a Freedom from Pains and there’s no uch thing as Felicity or Miory, but by the Comparion. 'Tis very true that Hopes and Fears are the Snares of Life in fome Repects; but then they are the Relief of it in others. Now for fear of the wort however on either hand, every Man has it in his own Power by the