There was never any thing gotten By Sensuality and Sloth, either in
Matter of Profit or of Reputation; whereas an Active, Industrious Life
carries not only Credit and Advantage, but a Good Conscience also along
with it. The Lazy, the Voluptuous, the Proud, and the Delicate, are
Struck at in This Fable: Men that set their Hearts only upon the Present,
without either Entering into the Reason, or looking forward into the End
of Things: Little Dreaming that all this Pomp of Vanity, Plenty, and
Pleasure, is but a Fattening of them for the Slaughter. ’Tis the Case of
Great and Rich Men in the World; the very Advantages they Glory in, are
the Cause of their Ruine. The Heifer that Valu’d it self upon a Smooth
Coat, and a Plump habit of Body, was taken up for a _Sacrifice_; but the
_Oxe_ that was Despis’d for his Drudgery, and his Raw-Bones, went on with
his Work still in the Way of a Safe and an Honest Labour.