The _Spaniards_ will have it that _Apes_ can speak if they would, but
they are afraid they shall be put to work then. The _Boys_ Reason
here, and the _Apes_ are much at one; and ’tis the case of Counterfeit
Cripples too, that pretend they cannot do this or that, when in truth,
they are Lazy, and have no mind to be put to’t. The same Humour Governs
in a World of Cases, where a Pretext of Disability is made use of,
either out of Crossness or Sloth. This Restiff Stubbornness is never to
be Excus’d, under any Pretence whatsoever; but where the thing to be
done is that which we are bound in Honour and in Duty to do, there’s
no Enduring of it. As in Cases of Law, Conscience, Church-Ceremonies,
Civil or Natural Obedience to Princes, Parents, Husbands, Masters, &c.
If I should do This, you’d make me do That, they cry; which is only a
short Resolution that puts all the Functions and Offices of Order and
Authority to a stand. He that says I cannot do this or that, where the
Thing is Lawfully Impos’d and Requir’d, and not _Simply Evil_, might
e’en as well have said, I _will_ not do’t; for the Exception is not to
the _Thing Commanded_, but to the _Commanding Power_. If I yield in one
Point, says the _Boy_, they’ll expect I should yield in more. Grant _One_
Prerogative, and grant _All_, says the _Republican_. But then says the
Sovereign on the Other hand, Part with one Prerogative, and part with
All: So that the Contest is not Matter of _Scruple_, but who shall be
_Uppermost_. In One Word, _Stubborn Boys_ and _Stubborn Subjects_, where
they will not Comply upon _Fair_ Means, must be _whipp’d_ into their
_Duties_.