If we allow for this fable's being written by a heathen, and according
to the scheme of the ancient pagan theology, it will appear to be a
pretty probable solution of some parts of the dispensation of
Providence, which otherwise seem to be obscure and unaccountable. For,
when we see the young and the old fall promiscuously by the hand of
Death, and at the same time consider that the world is governed by an
all-wise Providence, we are puzzled how to account for so seemingly
preposterous and unnatural a way of working. We should look upon a
gardener to be mad, or at least very capricious, who, when his young
trees are just arrived to a degree of bearing, should cut them down for
fuel, and choose out old, rotten, decayed, sapless stocks to graft and
inoculate upon: yet the irregular proceedings of those two levellers,
Love and Death, appear to be every jot as odd and unreasonable. However,
we must take it for granted that these things, though the method of them
is hidden from our eyes, are transacted after the most just and fit
manner imaginable: but, humanly speaking, it is strange that Death
should be suffered to make such undistinguished havoc in the world; and,
at the same time, just as shocking and unnatural to see old age laid
betwixt a pair of wedding sheets, as it is for youth and beauty to be
locked up in the cold embraces of the grave.