The _Sheep_ in this Fable was clearly too hard for the _Two Doctors_; and
we find all those Reasonings to be true in the World, which the _Mutton_
Alleges in the Fiction. For Man is certainly one of the most Perverse
Pieces of the Creation; and not only Cross to his Rational Brethren,
but betwixt his Will and his Understanding, he lives in a Perpetual
Contradiction to Himself. His Practice is directly contrary to his
Knowledge, and he shuts his very Eyes against the Light of his Nature.
Now other Creatures that are only guided by a Providential Impulse, have
the Grace to follow the Voice of their Director, and to keep themselves
within the Compass of their proper Bus’ness and Duty. Whereas Man, that
over and above the same common Instinct, is endu’d with the Talent of
Counsel and Knowledge, Improves those Advantages only to his Greater
Condemnation, by Abandoning the Offices and Functions of his Reasonable
Being. The Sum of the Moral, in fine, may be this, that it is not so much
the Excellency of our Human Nature, that Distinguishes us from Brutes, as
the due Exercise and Application of those Rational Faculties that Heaven
has Bestow’d upon us: Which comes to the very case of the _Sheep_ and
the _Doctors_. _Man_ knows what he _Ought_ to do, but (to his Greater
Condemnation,) he does not Act according to his Knowledge; whereas
_Animals_ that are Guided barely by _Instinct_, live in Obedience to the
Voice of Heaven in that of _Nature_.