’Tis Wisdom as well as Justice, to Distinguish betwixt Actions of
Misadventure, and of Design. Every Thing has at least Two Handles to’t,
and Both Parts should be well Examin’d, before a Man can make either a
Warrantable Judgment, or a Prudent Choice. The _Boy’s_ Mistake here is
no more than what we have Every day before our Eyes in common Practice:
And That which the _Snake_ says to the _Boy_, Every Man’s Reason says to
Himself. What is his taking a _Snake_ for an _Eele_, but our taking Vice
for Virtue? He did it Unwarily: And so do We Many times too. He took the
One for the Other, because they were so much Alike, that at first View
he could not Distinguish them. And are not Virtue and Vice as Like, in
several Instances, as One Egg is to Another? How shall a Man know, at
first Blush, Hypocrisie from Piety; True Charity from Ostentation? or
the Devil Himself with a Glory about him, from an Angel of Light? Time
and Examination may do much, but the _Boy_ was Groping, and in the Dark,
and so might Well be Mistaken. The _Snake_ Told him of his Error, and
the Danger of it, but Pass’d it over, because there was no _Ill Will_
in’t. This is the very Case of Our Reason to us, in all our Misdoings: It
Checks us for what’s Past, and Advises us for the Future, to have a care
of False Appearances: Just as the _Snake_ did to the _Child_ here.