Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable XCII, XCIII and XCIV
Fab. XCII.
A Fortune-Teller.
THere was a kind of a Petty Conjurer, that made it his Profession to Resolve Questions, and tell Fortunes, and he held forth in the Market-Place. Word was brought him, in the very Middle of his Schemes and Calculations, that his House was Robb'd; and so away he scours immediately to learn the Truth on't. As he was running home in All Haste, a Droll takes him up by the Way, with this short Question. Friend (says he) How come You to be so Good at telling Other Peoples Fortunes, and Know so little of your Own?
Fab. XCIII.
A Cunning woman.
A Certain Dame that pass'd in the World under the Name of a Cunning Woman, took upon her to Avert Divine Judgments, and to Foretell Strange Things to come. She play'd the Counterfeit Witch so long, till in the Conclusion, she was Taken up, Arraign'd, Try'd, Convicted, Condemned to Dye, and at last Executed for a Witch indeed. D'ye hear, Good Woman (says one to her, as she was upon the Way to her Execution) Are the Gods so much Easyer then the Judges, that you should be Able to make Them do any Thing for ye, and yet could not Prevail with the Bench for the Saving of your Own Life?
Fab. XCIV.
An Astrologer and a Traveller.
A Certain Starr-Gazer had the Fortune, in the very Height of his Celestial Observations, to stumble into a Ditch: A sober Fellow passing by, pave him a piece of Wholesome Counsel. Friend, says he, Make a Right Use of Your Present Misfortune; and pray, for the Future, let the Starrs go on quietly in their Courses, and do you look a little Better to the Ditches.
The MORAL of the Three Fables above.
REFLEXION.
The Moral of these Fables strikes upon the Vanity and Arrogance of Empyricks and Impostors Themselves, and upon the Folly of the Fond Believers of them. The Caution holds also against Unlawful Curiosities; Sickly, and Superstitious Fancyes and Dreams; Fore-bodings of Ill Luck; as the Crossing of a Hare, the Spilling of Salt, &c. This Humour, let it look never so Little, and Silly, (as it passes many times only for Frolique and Banter) is One yet of the most Pernicious Snares in Humane Lise; when it comes once to get Possession, and to Gain Credit; Especially among Women and Children, where the Imagination is strong in the One, and the Disposition as Plyant as Wax for any Impression, in the other. Wherefore, of All Things in This World, Care is to be Taken, that they get not a Hankering after These Juggling Astrologers, Gypsies, Wizzards, Fortune-Tellers, Conjurers, Quacks, Cunning Women, &c. To say Nothing of the Fooleries of Fortune-Books, and a Hundred other Vulgar Wayes of Enquiry into the Event of Amours, Marriages, Life and Death, Travel, Play, or the like; which is all but a Tincture of the same Capital Infirmity. If these Pretenders were not better Supported by the Simplicity, and Devotion of the Inquisitive Fooles that Consult Those Oracles, then they are by any Congruity of Premisses and Conclusions or by the Ordinary Way of Tracing Causes into their Effects, the Trade would not find ’em Bread; for there's No Proportion at all betwixt the Meanes, and the End. Not but that the Things they seem to Predict, come many times to pass; Yet still the nearer the Mark in their Conjecturcs, the more suspicious is the Profession on the One Hand, and the more Dangerous is the Credulity on the Other: For Those People that take upon them to Resolve such Doubts, Scruples, and Difficulties, as are not to be known by any Natural Process of Reasoning; and those Men that will be Prying by Unwarrantable, and Forbidden Ways, into the Sceret Councels of Almighty God, are Both Justly Punish’d: The One in Telling the Truth, and the Other in Hearing it: for it Hardens the One in his Confidence, and Presumption, and the Other in his Curiosity, and Superstition: Over and above the Feats that are done by Confederacy and Intelligence; for how shall any man pretend to tell Me my Fortune that knows nothing of his Own?
There are Mountebanks, and Smatterers also in State as well as in Science; Nay and perchance, the Vainer, the more Ignorant, and the more Mischievous of the Two; for All These Fables are Moraliz’d in History, Practice, and Conversation; and the Fiction, Match'd, ac least, if not Outdone, in Matter of Fact. And These Ordinary Hocuses have been made use of in All Ages too, as Tools of State; sometimes For the Government, Other while Against it, as the Occasion lay Fairest for the Game that was then a Playing. It goes a great Way, when Natural Curiosity, Vulgar Prejudice, and an Artificial Application of Actives to Passives, shall be Assisted with the Shams of Astrological Judgments and Calculations over and above: though with our Conjurers here, their Ignorance and Presumption lays them Open in the Conclusion to the Scorns and Contempt of the Common People.