There’s no Trusting to a _Known Hypocrite_ and an _Enemy Both_ in _One_,
and therefore the _Cock_ was too Crafty for the _Fox_ here, and kept
himself upon his Guard. There is this Mischief in _False Dealing_, that
it forces People to be _Hard Natur’d_ and _Suspicious_ in their own
Defence; for Credulity is Mortal. Not but that many Men are Impos’d upon
to their Ruin by a Mistaken _Charity_ and _Compassion_. It is a Nice
Point however, for a Man to take upon him to Assign the many and Various
Cases that occur upon this Topick, and so as to allot them their Just
and Proper Limits, with such a Regard to _Good Nature_ and _Discretion_,
as neither to be wanting to _Our Selves_, nor to _Others_: But yet
the _Possible Danger_ of Relieving a _Miserable Person_, for fear he
should be a _Counterfeit_, will not _Excuse_ a Man from doing Acts of
_Humanity_, notwithstanding that Pretence. But there is a Double Hazzard
in’t, for we may Miscarry either by _too Little Caution One_ way, or by
_too much Presumption_ the _other_. Now the Smelling out of a Trick, and
the _Defeating_ of it, does not come so Home, as _Repaying_ of it in
_kind_; for the _Contempt_ in the manner of doing it, gives a kind of
_Sting_ to the _Disappointment_. But the _Fox_ however has the Grace of
other _Bantering Buffons_: That is to say, he is never to be put out of
_Countenance_; and when he finds himself _Pinch’d_, he shifts it off with
a _Droll_.