This is to shew us the Mischief and the Danger of Procrastination. The
Sloathful and Irresolute slip their Opportunities in the very Expectation
of them. Some People are so unreasonably Lazy, as to expect that Nature
should rather go out of her Course and Way for their Sakes, then they put
themselves to the trouble of Moving One Step out of their own way for the
sake of Bus’ness and Nature. They’ll rather wait the Running of a River
Dry, then take the Pains to look about for a Bridge or a Ford. They never
consider that Nature is a Perpetual Motion, and that the Work of the
Universe Circulates, without any Interval or Repose. Why should not the
Sun sleep in the Firmament, or stand still to Attend our Affairs, as well
as the Rivers stop their Courses to give us Passage?
Nay, the Madness of this Folly is yet more Impious then any thing else
in’t; for what Man in his Right Wits can pretend to Wish, to Hope, or to
wait for such Events, for the Gratifying of a Sickly Fancy, as would be
enough to put People quite beside their Senses, if they should come to
pass? So Ridiculous are Intemperate Curiosities, and Impotent Affections,
that nothing less then Portents, and the Confounding of Nature in her
Course and Causes, can Content us. How can any thing succeed well to
People that are to be pleased with Nothing, unless the very Ball of the
Universe may be Unravel’d, and the Laws of Providence Revers’d?