This Fable gives to Understand, that where Men of Power happen to be
Unjust and Cruel, all the Prudence and Innocency in the World will not
save a Man: He that would Thrive in such a Court, must Govern himself
betwixt Sincerity and Adulation. The Art of Pleasing is not every Man’s
Talent, neither will the same way of Manage work upon all Humours alike.
The Art of Pleasing, is in Truth but the Art of Living; and the Skill
of Cutting to a Third, betwixt Flattery and Ill Manners; but so as to
Accomodate the Method and the Application, to the _Genius_ of the Man,
or of the People, and to the Quality of the Bus’ness in hand: Not but
that there are some Cases and Natures that a Man cannot so much as Touch,
without Burning his Fingers, and where Truth, Flattery, and Trimming are
all Mortal.
We may learn from hence also, that Justice is so Awfully Sacred, that
the most Faithless of Men have a secret Veneration for it; for their
Uttermost Cruelties are cover’d with the semblance of it; and in the
very Exercise of the Vice, they Affect the Reputation of the Virtue.
’Tis neither Prudent nor Safe, in fine, to Provoke great Men, or indeed
to have any thing to do with them, if they be not Men of Honour, as well
as of Power; for though their Hands seem to be Bound, they can yet Untye
themselves, by Virtue of a certain Prerogative they have to Play _Fast or
Loose at Pleasure_.