'Tis the Fortune of many a Good Man to fall into Bad Company, and to be Undone by’t, and yet no way Guilty all this while, of the Iniquity of his Companions. The Letter of the Law Sweeps All in ſuch a Caſe, without Diſtinction of Perſons: To fay Nothing of the Shame and Diſhonour of being taken up with Rogues and Felons; over and above the Laſh of Publique Juſtice, and the Contagion of a Lewd Converſation, Shew me the Company (ſays the Adage) and I'll tell ye the Man. What would a body think now of a Prime Miniſter that ſhould Conjobble Matters of State with Tumblers and Buffoons; Conferr Politiques with Tinkers and Carr-men? would not any man Judge their Souls to be of the ſame Standard and Allay? And that there were no mere betwixt them then Croſs or Pile, which ſhould be the Lord, and which the Scoundrel? Or, according to the Fable, which the Stork and which the Gooſe? For ’tis not the Purple, but the Virtue that makes a man of Honour; truly ſo call'd.
Fab. LXXIV.
A Boy, and Falſe Alarums.
A Shepherd Boy had gotten a Roguy Trick of crying [a Wolfe, a Wolfe] when there was No ſuch Matter, and Fooling the Country People with Falſe Alarums. He had been at This Sport ſo many times in Jeſt, that they would not Believe him at laſt when he was in Earneſt: And ſo the Wolves Brake in upon the Flock, and Worry'd the Sheep at Pleaſure.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
There's not One Man of a Thouſand that Underſtands the Juſt, the Safe, Warrantable, Decent, and Preciſe Limits of that which we call Bantering, or Fooling: But it is either too Courſe, too Rude, too Childiſh, too Bitter, too Much on’t, too Pedantique; and in fine, out of Meaſure, or out of Seaſon. Now the Leaſt Errour or Miſtake in the Manage of This Humour, lays People Open to Great Cenſure, and Reproach. It is not Every man's Talent to know When and How to Caſt out a Pleaſant Word, with ſuch a Regard to Modeſty and Reſpect, as not to Tranſgreſs the True,and
