In These Three Fables is set forth the Vanity of Unnatural Wishes, and
Foolish Prayers; which are not only to be Rejected, but they deserve also
to be Punish’d. Providence has made an Equal Distribution of Natural
Gifts, whereof each Creature severally has a share; and it is not for
This or That Particular to pretend to All: So that Considering the
Equality of the Division, No Creature has Cause, either to Boast, or to
Complain. We are never Content with the Bountyes of Providence. One would
have a Voice; T’other Gay Cloaths; and while Every Man would have All,
we Charge Providence with Injustice for not giving to Every Man Alike.
_Socrates_ was in the Right in Saying, That in Case a Man were to go
where he should have the Choice before him, of All the ill Things and All
the Good Things in Nature, he would come home again the same Man that he
went out.
It is to be Noted, upon the Distribution of the Matter of These Three
Fables, that the _Camel_ prays for Weapons Offensive, and Defensive,
either for the Encount’ring of Dangers, or the Repelling of them. The
_Fox_ and the _Hare_, for the Means of Avoiding them. And the _Peacock_
for a Voice, answerable to his Beauty. And All their Prayers are to No
Purpose, but to the Reproche of the Petitioners, and to the Confusion
of Vain Desires. What is All This but an Appeal from Heaven to Heaven
itself; and Petitioning Providence against Providence, in a Recourse from
One Providence to Another? The Determinations and Appointments of Heaven
are no more to be Disputed and Controll’d, then they are to be made
Better, and Improv’d; And we must not Presume to Judge of the Goodness
and Justice of Heaven, by the Frailties and Corruptions of Flesh and
Blood. We were not of Councel with the Almighty, either in the Making, or
in the Regulating of the World, and we have no more Right to Advise him
in the Governing of it. The Power, in fine, that Rules in the Nature of
Things, is no other then a Divine Influence.
Why should not the _Nightingale_ Envy the _Peacock’s Train_ as well as
the _Peacock_ Envy the _Nightingale’s Note_? And why should not All the
Work of the Creation Expostulate at the same Rate, and upon the same
Grounds? Why has not _Man_ the Wings of an _Eagle_ to carry him from
Danger, or to satisfie his Curiosity what the World’s a doing? Why has
he not the Sagacity of a _Dog_, the _Paw_ of a _Lyon_; The Teeth of a
_Leopard_; The Heels of a _Courser_, and the like? And have not Brute
Animals the same Equity of Complaint on the Other Hand, for want of the
Faculties and Advantages, Intellectual, and Moral of Mankind? So that
here’s a Civil War that runs through all the Parts of the Universe, where
Nothing is pleased with it’s Own Lot; and no Remedy at last; but by New
Moulding the World over again. This Inordinate Appetite has been the
Overthrow of many a Kingdom, Family and Commonwealth.
To Ask Impossibilities, in fine, is Ridiculous, and to Ask Things
Unnatural is Impious; for to take upon us to Blame, or Mend the Works
of Providence, is to suppose the Divine Wisdom lyable to Miscarriages
and Mistakes. These Mutterings are Foolish also, even to the Degree of
Madness it self; for there’s no Thought or Possibility of Relief in
the Case. Such as we are God has made Us: our Post and our Station is
appointed us, and the Decree is not to be Revers’d.