There are some Cases wherein a Man may Justifie some sort of Shufling and
Evading, without any Offence to Honour or Good Faith; as in a Case for
the Purpose, where the gaining of Time may be as much as a Man’s Life or
Estate is worth. _Some Men_ are but one Remove from _Some Asses_, and
the Difficulty of Teaching the one, is next Door to the impossibility of
Teaching the other. The very Proportion is a _Whimsie_ pleasant enough,
to shew the Vanity of attempting to make a Philosopher of a Blockhead:
Neither is it of a Quality to be understood according to the Letter.
So that in such a Case, if a Man can but Save himself by a Shift, or
a Figure, ’tis all that can be desired; and the Conditions naturally
implied, fall within the Fair Equity of the Question. There are certain
Bounds and Terms of Raillery that may very well stand with the Rules
of Honesty and Good Manners; that is to say, Where the Liberty carries
neither Malice, Sauciness, nor Ill Nature along with it: And the discreet
Manage of such a sort of Freedom, betwixt Jest and Earnest, Seasons the
Entertainment of an Agreeable Conversation. We should say to our Selves
in all our Distresses upon the Apprehension of Temporal Difficulties to
come, as this _Pedant_ in the Fable did to his Relations and Companions;
Let it be Bondage, Loss of Friends, Beggery, Banishment, nay Death it
self, [_This or that may Intervene_.] It is an Unaccountable Weakness
for a Man to put himself upon the Torture at present, for fear some body
else should Torment him Seven Years hence. Is it not enough for us to be
Miserable when the time comes, unless we make our selves so beforehand,
and by Anticipation? When we have gone as far as Conscience, Honour,
Industry, and Human Prudence can carry us, toward the preventing, or the
averting of the Danger that threatens us, we are to remit the rest to
Providence, and wait the good Pleasure of Heaven with Patience, Humility
and Resignation. This Man was to Die at Seven Years end, unless he could
bring to pass a thing impossible. Now sooner or later, (and which of the
Two is uncertain,) we are all of us to Die. Why are we not as Sollicitous
now for the Certainty of the Thing, as for the Appointment of the Time,
when a Thousand Accidents may interpose to divert the one, and the other
is wholly inevitable?