A _Fool_ and a _Hot Iron_.
A Smith threw down a Horse-Shoe in his Shop that was but just come out of
the Fire. A Fool took it up; it burnt his Fingers, and he cast it down
again. Why ye Blockhead you says the Workman, could not you have try’d
whether ’twas Hot or no before you meddled with it? _How try?_ says the
Fool. Why a _Hot Iron_ would have Hiss’d if you had but _Spit_ upon’t.
The Fool carry’d this Philosophy away with him, and took an Occasion
afterward to _Spit_ in his _Porridge_, to try if they’d _Hiss_. They did
not _Hiss_ it seems, and so he Guttled ’em up, and Scalt his _Chops_.
Well says one that was by, and could not you have stay’d till they were
cold? Why, I thought they had been Cold, says the Fool. You might have
known they were Hot, says t’other, by their Smoaking. The Fool carried
this in his mind too; and going a while after to a Spring-Head to quench
his Thirst, he fancy’d that the Fountain Smoak’d too; and there he staid
’till he was almost Choaked, for fear of Burning his Chops once again.
The MORAL.
_This very Innocent may serve to Teach Wise Men Caution, that they
Examine Matters before they pass a Judgment upon them; for otherwise, we
live at a kind of Hap-Hazzard, and without any Insight into Causes and
Effects._