Things that at first seem Terrible, become Easy to us when we are Wonted
to them; says the Old Moral; which holds, I confess, in the Case of the
_Camel_, but not in That of the _Lyon_.
With leave of the Moralist, the Illustration does not come up to the
Force and Intent of the Two Last Fables: Neither, in truth, is the very
Design of them according to the True Reason of the Matter in Question.
Things that seem Terrible, and are Not so, become not only Familiar, but
Ridiculous to us, when we find that our Fears were Vain and Idle; as
in the case of the _Camel_: But things on the contrary, that only Seem
Terrible, but are found upon Experience to be more Dangerous then we
took them for: (as in the Strength, the Nimbleness, the Fierceness, and
the Appetite of a _Lyon_.) These are Things, I say, that the Better we
Know them, the More we Dread them: So that though we have Apprehensions,
as well where there is No Peril, as where there Is: Yet Time teaches us
to Distinguish the One from the Other. The Allusion would much better
have held in the case of a Battle, where the Soldier grows Every day
less apprehensive of the Hazzard, by seeing so many People Scape; and by
Computing upon the Disproportion of Those that Outlive it, to Those that
Fall in’t. We may however Learn from hence, that people may be Frighted
as well Without Reason as With it. Now, in Propriety of Speaking, and
in a Right Understanding of the Thing too, People were not so much
Frighted, as they were Surpriz’d at the Bigness, and Uncouth Deformity
of the _Camel_: But I could Wish, the Fox had been More and More affraid
of the _Lyon_, the Oftner he Saw him; and the Doctrine would then have
been to Govern our Passions by the Truth and Reason of Things, not by
Appearances; but it holds however, that Custom goes a Great Way in
making Matters Indifferent to us. ’Tis much the same Case too, betwixt
the _People_, and _Bugg-Laws_, and _Acts of State_, that it is here
betwixt the _Fox_ and the _Lyon_. Men look, upon the _First_ Opening of a
_Publique Fast_, as if Heaven and Earth were going together; Not a _Shop
Open_; The _Streets_ Quiet, and so Dismal a Countenance Every where, as
if it were to Rain _Fire_ and _Brimstone_ the Next Moment. The _Second_
Day is a Little Uneasy too, but not half so Frightful as the _Former_:
and so in _Two or Three days more_, the Awe goes quite off, and the
People come to their Wits, and fall to their Trade again, without any
further Heed to the Matter.