This Story gives us to understand in the Application of it, that there
are more Mad-men out of _Bedlam_ than in’t; and that according to
_Horace_, We are all Mad, every Mother’s Child of us, more or less; and
therefore ’tis but Neighbourly Justice for One Mad-man to bear with
another. ’Twas well enough said of a Fellow in a Mad-House that was ask’d
in the Interval of his Distemper how he came to be there? Why, says he,
_The Mad Folks abroad are too many for us, and so they have Master’d all
the Sober People, and Coop’d ’em up here_. There’s an Alienation of Mind
in the Moral, as well as in the Physical Acceptation of the Expression:
and he’s as Mad a Man that abuses his Reason, as he that has lost the
Exercise of it: Beside, that there’s as great a Diversity of Freak and
Extravagancy in the one Sense as in the other; and they have their
_Paroxisms_ and their Intermissions both alike. Every Man Living in fine,
has his weak side, and ’tis but striking the right Vein to set the Humour
a Working.
The General Doctrin of this Parable, we find summ’d up in a very few
Words here: that is to say, he that eagerly pursues any thing, and gives
more for’t then it is worth, is no better then a Mad-man. Now the way to
make a true Estimate both of the Price and of the Purchase, is only to
set the one against the other, and so to Ballance the Account. One Mans
Head runs Riot upon Hawks, Hounds, Dice, Drabs, Drinking, Revelling, and
for Brevity sake, we may e’en take in the whole Roll of Good Natur’d
Sins and Pleasures, (if I may call them so,) that may serve to Gratifie
a Sensual Appetite. Let but a Man consider now the Time, Mony, Care,
Labour, and Vexation that this Wild-Goose-Chase has cost him, and then
say to himself on the other hand, what have I gotten to answer all this
Expense, but the Loose, Giddy Frolick of a few Mad Hours, attended with
Claps, Gouts, Palsies, Infamy, Beggary, Nauseous Qualms, Surfeiting
Satieties, Anxiety of Thought and Conscience, and all attended with the
Anguish of a Late and Unprofitable Repentance in the Conclusion? And
it is the same thing too with the Diabolical Transports of Ambition,
Pride, Envy, Revenge, and the like; over and above the Irreparable Loss
of a Thousand Blessed Opportunities, to the extreme Hazard of Eternity
it self. When ’tis come to this once, there’s no way but the Doctor’s
Discipline; that is to say, Mortification and Affliction to bring us to
our selves again.