Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/81

Rh conider, how it is with many of their Neighbours, they would find it their Duty to be Thankful, that it is no Wore with Themelves. It is ome Relief to the Mierable to hew them that there are Others yet more Mierable, and there is not any thing o Timerous, but omething ele is affraid of It. There are Thoe, 'tis True, that Die for the very Fear of Death, and Plunge themelves into Certain Miery, upon the Bare Apprehenion of it: But this comes rather from their Spleen, than their Mifortune.

Since o it is, that Nature Provides for the Neceities of All Creatures, and for the Well Being of Every One in it's kind: And ince it is not in the Power of any Creature to make it elf Other than what by Providence it was Deign'd to be; what a Madnes is it to Wih our elves Other than what we Are, and what we Mut continue to Be: Since the Thing is Bounded, and the Whole Matter Pre-Determin'd. Every Atome of the Creation has its Place Aign'd: Every Creature has its Proper Figure, and there is No Diputing with Him that Made it o. Why have not I This? and why have not I That? are Quetions for a Philoopher of Bedlam to ask; and we may as well Cavil at the Motions of the Heavens, the Viciitude of Day and Night, and the Succeion of the Seaons, as Expotulate with Providence upon any of the ret of Gods Works. The Ae would have Horns, and the Tinker would fain be in Bed with my Lady. The Ape would have a Tail; and why mould not a Mountebank Complain that he is not a Miniter of State or Jutice? But in hort, the Poor, Wretched, Blind Mole puts in with her Doctrine to take up the Quarrel.

And what's the Cae of the Hares now, but an Intance to Fortifie us againt Panick Frights and Terrors, for Trivial Caues; where the Fears are a great deal more Terrible than the Dangers? In All Thee Caes, we fancy our elves much more Mierable than we Are, for want of taking a True Etimate of Things. We fly into Tranports without Reaon, and Judge of the Happines, or Calamity, of Humane Life, by Fale Lights. A Strict Enquiry into the Truth of Matters will Help us in the One, and Comparion will et us Right in the Other. The Dogs and the Eagles Frighted the Hares; The Hares Frighted the Frogs, and the Frogs, Twenty to One, Frighted omething ele. This is according to the Coure of the World, One Fears Another, and ome body ele is affraid of Him.

It may eem to be a kind of a Malicious Satisfaction, that One Man derives from the Misfortunes of Another. But the Philoophy of This Reflexion tands upon Another Ground; for Our Comfort does not Arie from Other peoples being Mierable, but from This Inference upon the Ballance, That we uffer only the Lot of Humane Nature: And as we are Happy or Mierable, compar'd with Others, So Other People are Mierable or Happy Compar'd with Us: By which Jutice of Providence, we come to be Convinc'd of the Sin, and the Mitake of our Ingratitude. What would not a man give to be Eas'd of the Gout or the Stone? Or uppoing an Incurable Poverty on the One Hand, and an Incurable Malady on the Other, Why hould not the Poor Man think himelf Happier in his Rags, than the Other in his Purple? But the Rich Man Envies the Poor mans Health, without conidering his Want; and the Poor Man Envies the Others Treaure without conidering his Dieaes. What's an Ill Name in the World to a Good Concience within Ones elf? And how much les Mierable upon the Wheel, is One man that is Innocent, than Another under the Same Torture that's Guilty. The Only Way Rh