’Tis a Hard Matter in This Case to Reconcile Policy, and Good Nature;
or to bring a Plain-dealing Innocence into a Consistency with Necessary
Prudence; For Singleness of Mind passes in the World for want of Brains,
and where Knavery is in Credit, Honesty is sure to be a Drug; But Every
Man must stand or fall to his own Conscience, and so Divide the Matter,
as neither to Offend Christian Charity, nor Civil Discretion. The
Blessing that is pronounc’d upon the _Peace-Makers_, does not Extend
to Those Cases, where the Effect of the Peace shall be the Ruine of
the Reconcilers. ’Tis Dangerous Parting a Fray, whether it be Jest or
Earnest; for there are Sham-Quarrels as well as Bloudy Ones: In the One,
a Man runs the risque of his Hat, or his Cloak; In the Other, of his
Life. We have liv’d to see This Fable remarkably Moraliz’d among our
selves upon the like Occasion; for still as the Common Enemy were at
Variance, we had a sort of _Peace-making Pigeons_ that would needs be
Reconciling them, though the Only Security they had under the Sun was
their Divisions.