There are more Fools in the World then Wise Men, and more Knaves then
Honest Men; so that it is not Number, but Excellency, that Inhances the
Value of Any thing. The most copious Writers are commonly the Arrantest
Scriblers; and in so much Talking, the Tongue is apt to run before the
Wit: _In Many Words there is Folly, but a Word in Season is like Apples
of Gold in Pictures of Silver_: Says the Oracle of Truth it self. And
we have it from the same Authority, that our very _Prayers_, when they
are Loud and Long, are in the Sight of Heaven no better then so much
_Babbling_; and that they have more in them of Hypocrisy and Ostentation,
then of Affection and Judgment. The Great Creator of the Universe, whose
single _FIAT_ was sufficient to have made Ten Thousand Worlds in the
Twinkling of an Eye, Allowed himself Six Days yet for the Finishing of
his Purpose: Paus’d upon Every Days Work, Consider’d of it, Review’d it,
and Pronounc’d it _Good_, and so Proceeded. Right Reason Moves, in some
Proportion, by the same Steps and Degrees with This Inimitable Example:
It Deliberates, Projects, Executes, Weighs, and Approves. Nature does
Nothing in a Huddle, and Human Prudence should Govern it self by the same
Measures. A Plurality of Voices, ’tis true, carries the Question in all
our Debates, but rather as an Expedient for Peace, then an Eviction of
the Right; for there are Millions of Errors to one Reason, and Truth;
And a _Point_ is not so Easy to be Hit: In a Word, the Old Saying is a
shrewd One; that _Wise Men Propose, and Fools Determine_. Take the World
to pieces, and there are a thousand Sots to one Philosopher: and as many
Swarms of Flyes to One Eagle. _Lyons_ do not come into the World in
_Litters_.