Hopes and Disappointments are the Lot and Entertainment of Humane Life;
The One serves to keep us from Presumption, the other from Despair.
This Fable bids us wait the Seasons of Divine Providence, with Patience
and Perseverance, in the Duties of our Calling: What Difficulties, and
Temporary Discouragements soever we may Encounter in the Way; but as we
are not to Despond on the One hand, of reaping in God’s good time, the
Fruit of our Honest Endeavours: So neither are we, on the Other hand,
to lay more Stress upon the Event of Things, at Best, then the Matter
will bear: That is to say, we are to Compute, that upon Ballancing the
Account, the Profit at last, will hardly Countervail the Inconveniences
that go along with it.
The _Fisherman’s_ Case in the Fable is many a man’s Case in the World;
as with a Wife for the Purpose, with an Office, with an Estate, with a
Court-Commission: He’s fain to Tug Hard for’t before he can Catch it, and
Measures the Blessing all the while by the Difficulty of Obtaining it.
And what’s the Purchase at last when he comes to Cast up his Account, but
_Great Stones_ and _Little Fishes_? His only Comfort is, _That this World
will not Last always_; and that Good Luck, and Bad Luck take their Turns.