It is too often the hard fortune of many a kind good-natured man in the
world to breed up a bird to pick out his own eyes, in despite of all
cautions to the contrary; but they who want foresight should hearken to
the council of the wise, as this might have the effect of preventing
their spending much time and good offices on the undeserving, perhaps
to the utter ruin of themselves. It is the duty of all men to act
fairly, openly, and honestly, in all their transactions in life; to
do justice to all; but to consider well the character of those on
whom they would confer favours: for gratitude is one of the rarest
as well as the greatest of virtues. The Fable is intended to shew
that we should never have any dealings with bad men, even to do them
kindnesses. Men of evil principles are a generation of vipers, that
ought to be crushed; and every rogue should be looked upon by honest
men as a venomous serpent. The man who is occasionally, or by accident,
one’s enemy, may be mollified by kindness, and reclaimed by good usage:
such a behaviour both reason and morality expect from us: but we should
ever resolve, if not to suppress, at least to have no connexion with
those whose blood is tinctured with hereditary, habitual villainy, and
their nature leavened with evil, to such a degree as to be incapable of
a reformation.
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