This Allegory is a Political Reading upon the State and Condition of
Civil Communities, where the Members have their Several Offices, and
Every Part Contributes respectively to the Preservation and Service of
the Whole. ’Tis true, their Operations are More or Less Noble, but the
Mechanical Faculties can no more be Spar’d then the Intellectual, and
those that Serve in Council under an Appearance of Rest, are yet as
Busie, and as Necessary, in their Functions, as those that are Actually
and Visibly in Motion. Here’s a Caution in fine, to the _Members_, to
have a care how they withdraw themselves from their Duties, till it shall
be too late for their Superiours to make use of them.
There is so Near an _Analogy_ betwixt the State of a Body Natural, and
Politique, that the Necessity of Government and Obedience, cannot be
better Represented. The Motions of a Popular Faction are so Violent, and
Unreasonable, that neither Philosophy, Prudence, Experience, nay, nor the
Holy Writ it self, has the Power (ordinarily speaking) to Work upon them.
If People would allow themselves Time for Thought and Consideration, they
would find that the Conservation of the _Body_ depends upon the Proper
Use and Service of the Several _Parts_; and that the Interest of Every
Distinct _Member_ of it, is wrapt up in the Support, and Maintenance of
the _whole_, which obliges them all to Labour in their Respective Offices
and Functions for the Common Good. There are Degrees of Dignity (no doubt
on’t) in Both Cases, and One Part is to be Subservient to Another, in
the Order of Civil Policy, as well as in the Frame of a Man’s Body: so
that they are mightily out of the way, that take Eating and Drinking,
and Un-Eating, and Un-Drinking, in a course of Vicissitude, with other
Offices of Nature that are common to Beasts with Men, to be the Great
Bus’ness of Mankind, without any further Regard to the Faculties, and
Duties of our Reasonable Being: For Every _Member_ has its Proper, and
Respective Function Assign’d it, and not a Finger suffers but the _Whole_
Feels on’t.