It is no longer an Amity of Virtue, but of Design, when we seek our Own
Interest, under Colour of obliging Others; and men of Frankness and
Simplicity, are the most easily Impos’d upon, where they have Craft and
Treachery to deal withal. The Imposture, in Truth, can hardly Miscarry,
where there is a full Confidence on the One side, and a Plausible Address
and Disposition on the Other; wherefore ’tis good to be Wary, but so as
not to be Inexorable, where there is but any place for Charity it self
to hope for better Things; Not but that a Supine, Credulous Facility
exposes a man to be both a Prey, and a Laughing-stock, at once. ’Tis not
for us to judg of the good Faith of mens Intentions, but by the Light we
receive from their Works. We may set up this for a Rule however, that
where the Adviser is to be evidently the Better for the Council, and the
Advised, in Manifest Danger to be the worse for’t, there’s no Medling.
The _Crow’s_ Counsel was good enough in it self; but it was given with a
fraudulent Intention.