Delays are Dangerous. The very Instant is All that we can call our Own,
the Rest, is either Chance, or Fate. The Case of the _Fowler_ and the
_Chaffinch_, reaches to all the Pretensions of Humane Life. Every Man
Living has a Design in his Head upon something or other, and Applies
himself accordingly toward the Attaining of his End; whether it be
Honour, Wealth, Power, or any other sort of Advantage, or Settlement in
the World. Now he that would take a True Measure how to Proceed, should
say to himself, This is the Thing I would be at. This or That in such a
Proportion will do my Bus’ness; And This Nick of time is the Critical
Occasion for the Gaining of such or such a Point. I’ll take it while
’tis to be had. He that may be well, and Will not, in hope of being
Better, runs the Risque of getting Nothing at all; and so Parts with
a Moral Certainty in Possession, for a Wild, and a Remote Possibility
in Reversion. Lost Opportunities are never to be Recover’d. ’Tis Good
Discretion, when we cannot Command what we would have, to Compound for
what we May, and not to call any thing _Ill Luck_, which is in Truth _Ill
Manage_. ’Tis a Weakness to be Sollicitous for more then enough, and to
Hazzard All by Grasping at too much. _All Covet, All Lose_; for Avarice,
whether it Succeeds or not, is but a kind of Beggary; and he that Wants
More, has as Good as Nothing at all. The _Bird-Catcher_ slipt his Time
here, and makes Good the Old Vulgar Saying; _He that will not when he
May, When he Would he shall ha’_ Nay.