The Fables of the _Ax-Handle_, and the _Wedge_, serve to precaution us
not to put our selves Needlessly upon an After Game, but to Weigh before
hand what we Say, and Do. We should have a Care how we Arm our Enemies
against our Selves; for there’s Nothing goes Nearer a Man then to be
Undone by his Own Improvidence; and Nothing afterward more Ridiculous,
then to Blame Fortune for our own Faults: Though we are so Fram’d by
Nature, in respect of our Souls and Bodies, that One Part of a Man is
still Wounded by the Other. Nothing so much Troubled the _Eagle_ and the
_Thrush_, as the Thought of assisting to their own Destruction.
There’s No living in This World without an Exchange of Civil Offices,
and the Need we have One of Another, goes a Great Way towards the Making
of us Love One Another. How is this Amity, and Communication to be
entertain’d now, but by the Commerce of Giving and Receiving? Reason,
and Experience, are Sufficient to convince us of the Necessity of such
a Correspondence; And this Fiction of the _Axe_ and the _Forrest_,
and so of the _Tree_ and the _Wedge_, shews us the Danger of it too,
if it be not Manag’d with a Provident Respect to All the Niceties of
Circumstance, and Contingency in the Case. People have got a Custom,
’tis true, of Computing upon the Present Need, and Value of things,
without ever heeding the Consequences of them: As if all our Askings, and
our Grantings were to be Governed by the Standard of the Market. _’Tis
so pityful a Bus’ness_, says One, and _it was so small a Thing_, says
Another; And yet this _Pityful Bus’ness_, and this _Small Thing_, proves
at last to be as much as a Man’s Life, Honour, and Estate is Worth. Alas!
What’s a _Handle_ for an _Axe_, out of a whole _Forrest_! What’s the
Writing of a Man’s Name, or the saying Ay, or No to a Question? And yet
the very Safety and Honour of our Prince and Country, and the Summ of
our Well-being lies many a time at Stake upon the Issue of doing either
the One or the Other. Nay and let the People we have to do withal be
never so Just and Honest, it is yet a Temerity, and a Folly Inexcusable,
to deliver up our selves Needlesly into Anothers Power: For He that
does anything Rashly, must be taken in Equity of Construction to do it
willingly: for he was free to Deliberate or not: ’Tis Good Advice to
Consider, First, what the Thing is that is Desired. 2. The Character of
the Person that Asks. 3. What use may be made on’t to the Detriment of
him that Grants the Request, and so to Resolve how far in Duty, Humanity,
Prudence, Justice, and Respect, we are to Comply with it. Wheresoever
there is Moral Right on the One Hand, No Secondary Interest can Discharge
it on the Other. A Pris’ner upon Parole must surrender himself upon
Demand, though he Die for’t. A Man may Contribute to his own Ruin Several
Ways; but in Cases not to be Foreseen, and so not to be Prevented, it
may be his Misfortune, and the Man not to blame. We are not to omit
Precaution however, for fear an Ill Use should be made of those Things
that we do, even with a Good Intention; but we are still to Distinguish
betwixt what may Possibly, and what will Probably be done, according to
the Best Measures we can take of the End of Asking; for there would be
No Place left for the Functions of Humane Society, if the Possibility of
Abusing a Kindness, should wholly Divert us from the Exercise of Charity
and Good Nature. There may be Great Mischief Wrought yet, without any
thing of a Previous Malice, and it may be Hazardous to Yield, even
where the Proposal is wholly Innocent. There may be other Propositions
again, that were Originally Design’d for Snares, to the Short-sighted and
Credulous. Now ’tis the Art of Life, Critically to Discern the One Case
from the Other.
There needs Little more to be said to the Emblems of the _Eagle_ and the
_Thrush_, then to observe, that both by Chance, and by Nature, we are
made Accessary to our Own Ruins: and That’s enough to Trouble a Body,
though not to Condemn him.