This Fable is only a silly Tale told for the Tale’s sake, without any
further Mystery or Meaning that I can perceive in’t. If the _Florentine_
had been Drubb’d, or laid by the Heels for the Fallacy, or but Laugh’d
at for the Conceit, it would have serv’d for a Caution to People how
they Trifle and play the _Tonies_ betwixt Jest and Earnest, in Matters
of Common Honesty, Good Faith and Business. Or it would have born a
Moral, to Discountenance the Levity of _Punning_ and _Jingling_; and the
Childish Humour of Fooling with Mental Reservations and Double Meanings.
But as it is, I can find nothing more in’t then a Frothy, Empty Story.
It may serve however as a _Buoy_ to keep People at a Distance, and give
Notice of a Shelf or a Flat. For the Silliness of taking Delight in this
Vulgar way of Sophism, is to me as arrant an Indication of an Innocent,
as a Bib and a Bauble. So that the Doctrine of a Thing done here, teaches
us what we are not to do; that is to say, we are neither to Meditate
Fraudulent Contracts, nor to take Childish Collusions in Conversation for
Current Payment.