In This Emblem is set forth the Blessing of Liberty, and the Sordid
Meanness of those Wretches that sacrifice their Freedom to their Lusts,
and their Palates. What Man in his Right Senses, that has wherewithal
to Live Free, would make himself a Slave for Superfluities! The _Wolfe_
would have been well enough Content to have Barter’d away a Ragged Coat,
and a Raw-Bon’d Carcass, for a Smooth and a Fat One; but when they came
to talk of a _Collar_ once, away Marches He to his Old Trade in the Woods
again, and makes the Better Choice of the Two.
To speak to the First Point, we are lyable to be Impos’d upon by
Outsides and Appearances, for want of Searching things to the Bottom,
and Examining what Really they are, and what they Only seem to be. This
Fiction of the _Wolfe_, is a Reproof to Eager Appetites, and Over-Hasty
Judgments, that will not give themselves time to Ballance Accounts, and
Compute Beforehand, whether they are to get or Lose by the Bargain. It
holds as well against Intemperate Curiosities, and Rash Wishes, That is
to say, against the Folly of the One, and the Wickedness of the Other;
for if we come once to take Evil for Good, _our very Prayers are turn’d
into Sin_: But what with a Certain Itch of Prying into, and Meddling with
Other Peoples Matters, and a Natural Levity that puts us upon Shifting
and Changing, we fall Insensibly into a Thousand Inconveniences: and
when it comes to That once, that we find our selves Uneasie at Home, and
no Resting-Place in our Own Thoughts, (where Rest is Only to be had) we
are e’en glad to run away from our Selves, and Hunt abroad for’t where
’tis never to be found. This is the Common Root of all our Wandrings and
Errors. We Spend our Time, and our Peace, in Pursuit of Things wholly
Forreign to our Business, and which will Certainly Deceive us at last.
Thus it Is, and Thus it must be, so long as we take Every thing by a
Wrong Handle, and only Calculate upon our Own Misfortunes, without any
Allowance for the Comforts that we Enjoy. And so we reckon upon our
Neighbours Enjoyments, on the Other hand, without any Consideration
for the Hardships that They Endure. Oh that I had but such a Palace!
Says One; Such an Estate; Such a Retinue; This Glorious Train; That
Lovely Woman, _&c._ Nay the Envious Freak Descends to the very Point,
and Petticoat. Now these Idle Curiosities may be Specious Enough in
the Contemplation; but what if This House, at the Foot of the Account,
should Prove to be Haunted, That Gay Furniture Borrow’d; T’other fine
Woman Clapt; The Curse of Sacrilege cleaving to such an Inheritance,
and all the rest of the Gawdy Fooleries perhaps unpay’d for? (as these
Incumbrances are no New Things in Nature) Who would not rather take up
with the _Wolfe_ in the Woods again, then make such a Clutter in the
World upon These Scandalous Conditions.
For the Obviating of All Cases of this Quality, Children should be Early
Instructed, according to their Age and Capacity, in the True Estimate of
Things, by Opposing the Good to the Evil, and the Evil to the Good; and
Compensating, or Qualifying One Thing with Another. What’s Plenty without
Health? What’s Ease without Plenty? And what’s Title and Greatness, with
Carking Thoughts, and a Troubled Mind to Attend it? What does That Man
Want that has Enough? Or What’s He the better for a Great deal, that can
never be Satisfy’d? By This Method of Setting what we Have against What
we have Not, the Equity of Providence will be made Manifest, and to All
manner of purposes Justify’d; When it shall appear upon the Ballance,
that Every man has his Share in the Bounties of Heaven to Mankind.
As to the Freedom here that _Æsop_ is so Tender of, it is to be
Understood of the Freedom of the Mind: A Freedom to Attend the Motions of
Right Reason; and a Freedom, in fine, not to be parted with for All the
Sensual Satisfactions under the Sun. It is, I say, a Freedom under These
Limits; for there’s No such Thing as Absolute Liberty: Neither is it
possible that there should be any, without a Violence to the Order of the
Universe, and to the Dictates of Reasonable Nature: For All Men Living
are in Some sort or Other, and upon some Penalty or Other, Subjected to a
Superior Power; That is to say, the Laws of Morality are Above them: But
the Case wherein All Men are upon the Behaviour is not here the Question.
To Wind up the Moral, in short; Liberty is a Jewel, and a Blessing. The
_Wolfe_ was well enough pleas’d here with the State of the _Dog’s_ Body,
but he had no fancy to his Collar.