There’s No Recalling of what’s Gone and Past; so that After-Wit comes too
Late when the Mischief is Done. That is to say, it comes too late for
That Bout. But it is not Amiss, however, for a Man that has gone astray,
to call to Mind where he went out of his Way, and to look back Step by
Step into all his Miscarriages and Mistakes. The Glass of Life is Behind
us, and we must look into what’s Past, if we would take a View of what’s
to Come. A Fault Committed, or a Misfortune Incurr’d, cannot be Recall’d
’tis True; but yet the Meditating upon One False Step may help to Prevent
Another. Wherefore ’tis Good, upon the Point of Common Prudence, to be
Thoughtful, provided we be not more Sollicitous then the Thing is worth,
and that we make a Right Use of Those Reflexions; that is to say, an
Use of Repentance, where we did Morally Amiss; an Use of Rectifying
our Judgments, where we did Foolishly; and an Use of Caution in both
Cases, never to do the same Thing over again. This is no more then what
in Conscience, Equity, and Reason we are Bound to do. But we must have
a care all this while, not to run into False Consequences for want of
laying Things and Things together, and to Sham Fallacies upon the World
for Current Reason, as the _Nightingale_ was taken Singing in the _Day_
when she was at _Liberty_. And what’s This to her Resolution of Singing
only in the _Night_, now she’s in the _Cage_.