One Double Practice may be disappointed by another; but the Gifts of
Nature are beyond all the Shams and Shuffles in the World. There’s as
much difference betwixt Craft and Wisdom, as there is betwixt Philosophy
and Slight of Hand. Shifting and Shuffling may serve for a Time, but
Truth and Simplicity will most certainly carry it at the long run. When
a Man of Trick comes once to be Detected, he’s Lost, even to all Intents
and Purposes: Not but that one Invention may in some Cases be Honestly
Countermin’d with another. But this is to be said upon the whole Matter,
That Nature provides better for us, then we can do for our selves; and
instructs every Creature more or less, how to shift for it self in Cases
of Ordinary Danger. Some bring themselves off by their Wings, others by
their Heels, Craft, or Strength. Some have their Cells or Hiding Places;
and upon the Upshot, they do more by Virtue of a Common Instinct toward
their own Preservation, then if they had the whole Colledge of the
_Virtuosi_ for their Advisers. It was _Nature_ in fine, that brought off
the _Cat_, when the _Foxes_ whole Budget of _Inventions_ fail’d him.