The Decrees and Appointments of Heaven are Unchangeable, and there’s no
Contending. How many Popular Counter-parts of the _Asses Petition_ to
_Jupiter_ for Redress of Grievances, have we liv’d to see within our
own Memory, and all, for Things, not only Unreasonable, but utterly
Impossible. We read however in the Answer, the Quality, and the Reproch
of the Prayer, which is Granted upon Conditions as Impracticable as the
Thing desir’d is Ridiculous.
The _Asses_ are here Complaining (after the Way of the _Mobile_) for
being put to the very Use and Bus’ness they were made for; as if it
were Cruelty and Oppression to Employ the Necessary Means, which God
and Nature has given us, for the Attaining of Necessary Ends. If we
Confound Higher and Lower, the World is a _Chaos_ again, and a Level.
Is not a Labourer as much a Tool of Providence as the Master Builder?
Are not the Meanest Artisans of the same Institution with Ministers of
Counsel and State? The Head can no more be without the Body, then the
Body without the Head; and neither of them without Hands and Feet to
Defend, and Provide, both for the One, and for the Other. Government can
no more subsist without Subjection, then the Multitude can Agree without
Government: And the Duty of Obeying, is no less of Divine Appointment,
then the Authority of Commanding.
Here’s a _Petition_ to _Jupiter_, in Truth, against Himself; and in
the Moral, a Complaint to God against Providence; as if the Harmony of
Nature, and of the World; The Order of Men, Things, and Bus’ness, were
to be Embroil’d, Dissolv’d, or Alter’d, for the Sake of so many _Asses_.
What would become of the Universe if there were not Servants as well
as Masters? Beasts to Draw, and Carry Burdens, as well as Burdens to
be Drawn and Carry’d? If there were not Instruments for Drudgery, as
well as Offices of Drudgery: If there were not People to Receive and
Execute Orders, as well as others to Give and Authorize them? The Demand,
in fine, is Unnatural, and Consequently both Weak and Wicked; and it
is likewise as Vain, and Unreasonable, to Ask a Thing that is wholly
Impossible. But ’tis the _Petition_ of an _Ass_ at last which keeps up
the Congruity of the Moral to the Fable.
The Ground of the Request, is the Fiction of a Complaint, by reason of
Intolerable Burdens. Now we have Grievances to the Life, as well as in
Fancy; and _Asses_ in _Flesh and Blood_ too, and in _Practice_, as well
as in _Emblem_. We have _Herds_ in _Society_, as well as in the _Fields_,
and in the _Forests_; And we have _English_ too, as well as _Arcadian
Grievances_. What? (Cries the Multitude) are not our Bodies of the same
Clay, and our Souls of the same Divine Inspiration with our Masters?
Under these Amusements, the Common People put up so many Appeals to
Heaven, from the Powers and Commands of their Lawful Superiors, under
the Obloquy of Oppressors; and what Better Answer can be return’d to
All their Clamorous Importunities, then this of _Jupiter_? Which most
Emphatically sets forth the Necessity of Discharging the _Asses_ Part;
and the Vanity of Proposing to have it done any Other Way. As who should
say, the Bus’ness of Humane Nature must be done. Lay your Heads together,
and if you can find any way for the doing it, without one sort of People
under Another, You shall have Your Asking. But for a Conclusion, He
that’s born to Work, is out of his Place and Element when he is Idle.