’Tis a Common Thing for People that are Uneasy, to fly to Remedies that
are Worse then the Disease; wherefore Men should Deliberate before they
Resolve; and say to Themselves, This we suffer at Present, and This or
That we Propose to Get by such and such a Change; and so set the One
against the Other. The _Wenches_ were call’d up too Early, they thought,
and so for fear of having too Little Sleep, they ran the Risque of
having no Sleep at all. And it fares much at the same Rate in Publique
Grievances that it does in Private; When rather then bear the Importunity
of a Flea-biting, we are apt to run our selves Hand over Head into a
Bed of Scorpions; which is such another kind of an Expedient, as if a
Body should Beat out his Brains to Cure the Head-Ach. Flesh and Bloud is
Naturally impatient of Restraint; beside the Itch and Curiosity that we
have, to be Prying and Searching into Forbidden Secrets; and to see (as
one says) _What Good is in Evil_. ’Tis Natural to us to be Weary of what
we have, and still to be Hankering after something or other that we have
Not: And so our Levity Pushes us on from One Vain Desire to Another, in a
Regular Vicissitude, and Succession of Cravings and Satiety. We want (as
I say) what we have not, and grow Sick on’t when we have it. Now the Wise
Man Clears the Whole Matter to us, in Pronouncing _All things under the
Sun_ (That is to say, the Pomp, the Pleasures, and the Enjoyments of This
World) to be _Vanity of Vanities_, and _All, Vanity_. The Truth of it is,
we Govern our Lives by Fancy, rather then by Judgment. We Mistake the
Reasons of Things, and Impute the Issue of them to Wrong Causes. So that
the Lesson given us here, is Preceptive to us, not to do any thing but
upon due Consideration. The _Wenches_ Kill’d the _Cock_ for calling them
up so soon, whereas the Crowing of the _Cock_ was the Cause, in Truth,
that they were call’d up no sooner.