Here’s a Reproof to Men of Sensuality, and Pleasure. The Moral Preaches
Industry, and Beats down Sloth; and Shews that After-wit is Nothing
Worth. It must be an Industrious Youth that provides against the
Inconveniences and Necessities of Old Age; And he that Fools away the
One, must either Beg or Starve in the Other. _Go to the Ant, thou
Sluggard_; (says the _Wise Man_) which in a Few Words Sums up the Moral
of This Fable. ’Tis Hard to say of Laziness, or Luxury, whether it
be the more Scandalous, or the more Dangerous Evil. The very Soul of
the Slothful, does Effectually but lie Drowzing in his Body, and the
Whole Man is Totally given up to his Senses: Whereas the Profit and the
Comfort of Industry, is Substantial, Firm, and Lasting; The Blessings
of Security and Plenty go along with it, and it is never out of Season.
What’s the _Grasshopper’s_ Entertainment now, but a Summers Song? A Vain,
and an Empty Pleasure? Let it be Understood however, that we are not
to Pass _Avarice_ upon the World under the Title of _Good Husbandry_,
and _Thrift_: and under That Cover to Extinguish _Charity_ by not
Distributing the Fruits of it. We are in the First Place, to Consult our
Own Necessities, but we are Then to Consider in the Second Place, that
the Necessities of our Neighbours have a Christian Right to a Part of
what we have to Spare. For the Common Offices of Humanity, are as much
Duties of _Self-Preservation_, as what Every _Individual_ Contributes to
its Own Well-Being. It is in Short, the Great Interest and Obligation of
_Particulars_, to advance the Good of the _Community_.
The Stress of This Moral lies upon the Preference of Honest Labour to
Idleness; and the Refusal of Relief on the One Hand, is intended only for
a Reproof to the Inconsiderate Loss of Opportunity on the Other. This
does not hinder yet, but that the _Ants_, out of their Abundance, ought
to have Reliev’d the _Grasshopper_ in her Distress, though ’twas her Own
Fault that Brought her to’t: For if One Man’s Faults could Discharge
Another Man of his Duty, there would be no longer any Place left for
the Common Offices of Society. To Conclude, We have our Failings, Every
Mothers Child of us, and the Improvidence of my Neighbour must not make
me Inhumane. The _Ant_ did well to _Reprove_ the _Grasshopper_ for her
_Slothfulness_; but she did Ill then to refuse her a _Charity_ in her
_Distress_.