Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CLXII
Fab. CLXII.
A Nightingale and a Bat.
AS a Nightingale was Singing in a Cage at a Window, up comes a Bat to her, and Asks her why she did not sing in the Day, as well as in the Night. Why (says the Nightingale) I was Catch'd Singing in the Day, and so I took it for a Warning: You should have thought of This then says 'Tother, before you were Taken; for as the Case stands now, Y’are in no Danger to be Snapt Singing again.
The MORAL.
A Wrong Reason for the Doing of a Thing is worse then No Reason at all.
REFLEXION.
There’s No Recalling of what's Gone and Past; so that After-Wit comes too Late when the Mischief is Done. That is to say, it comes too late for That Bout. But it is not Amiss however, for a Man that has gone astray, to call to mind where he went out of his Way, and to look back Step by Step into All his Miscarriages and Mistakes. The Glass of Life is Behind us, and we must look into what's Paft, if we would take a View of what’s to Come. A Fault Committed, or a Misfortune Incurr’d, cannot be Recall'd ’tis True; but yet the Meditating upon One False Step may help to Prevent Another. Wherefore ‘tis Good, upon the Point of Common Prudence, to be Thoughtful, provided we be not more Sollicitous then the Thing is worth, and that we make a Right Use of Those Reflexions; that is to say, an Use of Repentance, where we did Morally Amiss; an Use of Rectitying our Judgments, where we did Foolishly; and an Use of Caution in Both Cases, never to do the same Thing over again. This is no more then what in Conscience, Equity, and Reason we are Bound to do. But we must have a care all this while, not to run into False Consequences for want of laying Things and Things together; and to Sham Fallacyes upon the World for Current Reason, as the Nightingale was taken Singing in the Day when she was at Liberty. And what's This to her Resolution of Singing only in the Night, now the's in the Cage.