This Parable of the _Hedge_ and the _Vineyard_, may be aptly enough
expounded of the Laws that secure a Civil Community. So long as the
Enclosure is kept up, and maintain’d, the Peace and the Order of the
Publick is Provided for; but if it be suffer’d by Neglect, either to
fall to Decay, or to be over-born by Violence, and all laid in Common,
the Beasts of the Forest break into’t, and of a Vineyard it becomes a
Wilderness. This Fable marks out to us also the double Folly of those,
that First disappoint the Intent, Use and Benefit of Things, for want of
Understanding the Reason of them; and Secondly, ground all this upon as
gross a Mistake of ’em: For what’s his Quarrel to the _Hedge_, but that
his _Thorns_ and his _Brambles_ did not bring forth _Raisins_, rather
then _Haws_ and _Blackberries_?