This Fable Recommends to us the Doing of Every thing in its Due Season,
for either too Soon or too Late signifies Nothing. It is but _making
Almanacks for the Last Year_, to stand Talking what Might have been
done; when the Time of Doing it is past. When a Battle is Lost, This or
That, we say, might have Prevented it. When a Tumult is Emprov’d into a
Rebellion, and a Government Overturn’d by’t, ’tis just to as much purpose
to say, This or That might have Sav’d All: As for our _Doctor_, here to
say, when his _Patient_ was Dead, that it was for want of going such or
such a way to Work. We have abundance of These Wise Men in the World that
are still looking backward without seeing One Inch of the way before
them. Not but that the Experience of Things Past, may be very Instructive
to us toward the Making of a Right Judgment upon Things to come, but in
such a Case as This, it is wholly Vain and Unprofitable, to all manner of
Intents. ’Tis the Bus’ness of a Substantial, and a Well-Grounded Wisdom,
to be still looking forward, from the First Indispositions, into the
Growth, and Progress of the Disease. It Traces the Advance of Dangers
step by step, and shews us the Rise and Gradations of the Evil; and gives
us Light, either toward the Preventing, or the Suppressing of it. We
have in such an Instance as This, the means before us, of a True, and
an Useful Perception of Things, whereas Judgments that are made on the
Wrong side of the Danger, amount to no more then an Affectation of Skill,
without either Credit or Effect. Let Things be done when they May be
done, and _When_, and _As_ they _Ought_ to be done: As for the Doctor’s
_Iffing_ upon the Bus’ness, when his _Patient_ was Dead, it was just to
as much purpose as Blowing Wind in’s Breech.