This serves for a Reproof to the Ignorance and Confidence of
_Figure-Flingers_, _Starr-Gazers_, that pretend to foretell the Fortunes
of Kingdoms and States, and yet have no Foresight at all in what concerns
Themselves.
The Moral of these Fables strikes upon the Vanity and Arrogance of
_Empyricks_ and _Impostors Themselves_, and upon the Folly of the Fond
_Believers_ of them. The Caution holds also against Unlawful Curiosities;
Sickly, and Superstitious Fancyes and Dreams; Fore-bodings of Ill Luck;
as the Crossing of a Hare, the Spilling of Salt, _&c._ This Humour,
let it look never so Little, and Silly, (as it passes many times only
for Frolique and Banter) is One yet of the most Pernicious Snares in
Humane Life; when it comes once to get Possession, and to Gain Credit,
Especially among Women and Children, where the Imagination is strong in
the One, and the Disposition as Plyant as Wax for an Impression, in the
Other. Wherefore, of All Things in This World, Care is to be Taken, that
they get not a Hankering after These _Juggling Astrologers_, _Gypsies_,
_Wizzards_, _Fortune-Tellers_, _Conjurers_, _Quacks_, _Cunning Women_,
&c. To say Nothing of the Fooleries of _Fortune-Books_, and a Hundred
other Vulgar Wayes of Enquiry into the Event of _Amours_, _Marriages_,
_Life and Death_, _Travel_, _Play_, or the like; which is all but a
Tincture of the same Capital Infirmity. If these Pretenders were not
better Supported by the Simplicity, and Devotion of the Inquisitive Fools
that Consult Those Oracles, then they are by any Congruity of Premisses
and Conclusion; or by the Ordinary Way of Tracing Causes into their
Effects, the Trade would not find ’em Bread; for there’s No Proportion at
all betwixt the Means, and the End. Not but that the Things they seem to
Predict, come many times to pass; Yet still the nearer the Mark in their
Conjectures, the more suspicious is the Profession on the One Hand, and
the more Dangerous is the Credulity on the Other: For Those People that
take upon them to Resolve such Doubts, Scruples, and Difficulties, as are
not to be known by any Natural Process of Reasoning; and those Men that
will be Prying Forbidden Ways, into the Secret Councels of Almighty God,
are Both Justly Punish’d: The One in Telling the Truth, and the Other in
Hearing it: for it Hardens the One in his Confidence, and Presumption,
and the Other in his Curiosity, and Superstition: Over and above the
Feats that are done by Confederacy and Intelligence; for how shall any
man pretend to tell Me my Fortune that knows nothing of his Own?
There are _Mountebanks_, and _Smatterers_ also in _State_ as well as in
_Science_; Nay and Perchance, the Vainer, the more Ignorant, and the more
Mischievous of the Two; for All These Fables are Moraliz’d in History,
Practice, and Conversation; and the Fiction, Match’d, at least, if not
Outdone, in matter of Fact. And These Ordinary _Hocusses_ have been made
use of in All Ages too, as Tools of State; sometimes For the Government,
Other-while Against it, as the Occasion lay Fairest for the Game that
was then a Playing. It goes a great Way, when Natural Curiosity, Vulgar
Prejudice, and an Artificial Application of Actives to Passives, shall be
Assisted with the _Shams_ of _Astrological Judgments_ and _Calculations_
over and above: though with our _Conjurers_ here, their Ignorance and
Presumption lay them Open in the Conclusion, to the Scorns and Contempt
of the Common People.