This Fable will bear Divers Morals; as First, That it is but Due
Gratitude to be Thankful to our Preservers. Secondly, The _Crane’s_ Good
Fortune can hardly Excuse his Facility. And then the _Crane_ did Ill
again, to Insist upon a Reward; for a Good Office pays it self; neither
was he reasonably to Expect that so Perfidious a Creature should keep
Touch with him. Thirdly, Though the _Wolf_ was to blame for not making
Good his Promise, there is yet in Equity, a kind of Reward, in not
Chopping off his Head when he had it at Mercy.
The Case of the _Crane_ here, is a Case of Conscience; for ’tis a
Nice Business to Determine, how far Wicked Men in their Distresses
_May_ be Reliev’d; How far they _Ought_ to be Reliev’d; and to what
Degree of Loss, Labor, and Difficulty, a Sober, a Wise, and a Good
Man may Interpose to their Redress. He may _Give_; he may _Lend_, he
may _Venture_, so far as Generosity and Good Nature shall prompt him;
provided always that he go no farther than the Conscience of the Cause,
or of the Action will Warrant him. A Man is at _Liberty_, ’tis true, to
do many Kind and Brave Offices, which he is not _Bound_ to do: And if
the Largeness of his Heart shall carry him beyond the Line of Necessary
Prudence, we may only reckon upon it as a more Illustrious Weakness.
Here is a Fiction of One _Crane_ that scap’d, that there might not want
One Instance of an Encouragement to a Dangerous Act of Charity: But
this One Instance is not yet sufficient to justifie the making a Common
Practice of it, upon the same Terms. ’Tis possible for One Blot not to be
Hit; or to be Over-seen perhaps. And so ’tis as possible for One Ill Man,
either not to think of the Mischief he could do, or to slip the Occasion
of it; but such a Deliverance however, is a Thing to Thank Providence
for, without standing upon a Reward for the Service. The Bone in the
Throat of the _Wolf_, may be Understood of any sort of Pinch, or Calamity
either in Body, Liberty, or Fortune. How many do we see Daily, Gaping
and Struggling with Bones in their Throats, that when they have gotten
them drawn out, have Attempted the Ruin of their Deliverers! The World,
in short, is full of Practices and Examples to Answer the Intent of this
Fable; and there are Thousands of Consciences that will be Touch’d with
the Reading of it, whose Names are not written in their Foreheads.