’Tis Good Discretion, when a Body has to do with an Adversary, that is
either too Crafty, or too Strong for him, to turn him off to his Match;
but it would be a Cleverer Way yet, to Encounter the Stratagem, and to
Defeat One Sham with Another, as the Simplicity of the _Cock_ here was
too hard for the Wiliness of the _Fox_. Experience makes many a Wise Man
of a Fool, and Security makes many a Fool of a Wise Man. We have an
Instance of the Former in the _Cocks_ Over-reaching the _Fox_, and of the
Other, in the _Foxes_ Supine Confidence, that made him so Intent upon
his Prey, as to neglect his Safety. Now the _Cock_, that upon Long Tryal
and Observation, knew the _Fox_ to be the Common Enemy of all Poultrey;
had likewise a Dread and Suspicion of him by Instinct, which made him
Naturally Cautious upon the very Principle of Self-Preservation. Whereas
the _Fox_, that Trusted to his Address and Manage, without so much as
Dreaming of a Cross Bite from so silly an Animal, fell Himself into the
Pit that he had Digg’d for Another. It is much the same Case in the World
when Providence is pleas’d to Confound the False, the Mighty, and the
Blood-Thirsty, by Judgments of Lice and Frogs: That is to say, by the
most Despicable of Instruments. To put an End to This Moral, It is a
wonderful Thing how the very Force of Nature will Exert it self, in the
Meanest and the Weakest of Creatures, in Cases of Extream Necessity and
Danger: As it made the _Cock_ here too hard for the _Fox_.