It is Highly Dangerous, and Imprudent, for a People in War to call in an
Enemy-Prince to their Defence. There’s no Trusting a Perfidious Man, nor
any Enmity like the Pretended Protection of a Treacherous Friend.
There is no Living in this World without Inconveniences, and therefore
People should have the Wit, or the Honesty, to take up with the Least,
and to bear the Lot, which is not to be Avoided, with Honour, and
Patience. How many Experiments have been made in the Memory of Man, both
in Religion, and in State, to mend Matters, upon pretence that they were
_Uneasie_, by making them _Intolerable_. And whence is This, but from a
Mistaken Opinion of the Present, and as False a Judgment of the Future!
And all for want of Rightly Understanding the Nature and the Condition
of Things, and for want of Foresight into Events. But we are Mad upon
Variety, and so Sick of the Present, (how much soever Without, or Against
Reason) that we Abandon the Wisdom, and the Providence of Heaven, and Fly
from the Grievances of God’s Appointment, to Blind Chance for a Remedy.
This Fable in One Word was never more Exactly Moralized then in our
Broils of Famous Memory.
The _Kite_ was the _Evil Councellor_; The _Free-Born People_ that
Complain’d of them were _Pigeons_; The _Hawk_ was the Power or Authority
that they Appeal’d to for Protection. And what did all this come to at
Last? The very _Guardians_ that took upon them to Rescue the _Pigeons_
from the _Kite_, destroy’d the Whole _Dove-House_, devour’d the Birds,
and shar’d the Spoil amongst Themselves.