This is the Case of Many People in the World, that spend their Time in
Good Offices for Others, to the Utter Ruine of Themselves: And there’s No
Better to be Expected from a Wicked Age, and an Ill Natur’d People. They
that want Foresight, should do well to Hearken to Good Council. He that
thinks to Oblige Hard-Hearted People by an Officious Tenderness, and to
fare the Better Himself for putting it into Their Power to Hurt him, will
find only so much Time, Pains, and Good-Will, utterly cast away, at the
Foot of his Account. ’Tis Good however, to Hope, and to Presume the Best,
provided a Man be Prepar’d for the Worst. The Mistake lies in This, that
the Charity begins Abroad that Ought to begin at Home. They that cannot
see into the End of Things, may well be at a Loss in the Reason of them;
and a Well-Meaning Piety is the Destruction of many an Honest Man, that
sits Innocently Brooding upon the Political Projects of Other People,
though with the Heart all the While, of a Patriot, and a True Friend to
the Publique. Tell him the Consequences of Matters, and that he is now
Hatching of _Serpents_, not of _Chickens_: A Misguided Zeal makes him
Deaf and Blind to the true State and Issue of Things. He sits his Time
out, and what’s the End on’t; but the Plot Naturally Discloses it self
in a Common Ruine? It is a Great Infelicity to make a Wrong Choice of a
Friend: But when Men are Advertis’d of the Danger beforehand, it is as
Great a Fault, if they will take No Warning. The _Hen_ was told on’t, but
the _Swallow_ had the Fate, as well as the Gift of _Cassandra_; to speak
Truth, and not to be believ’d: Which has been the Misfortune of many an
Honest Man in All Times, and particularly in the very Age we live in.