The Moral.
REFLEXION.
Wicked Diſpoſitions ſhould be Check’d betimes; for when they come once to Habits, they grow Incurable. More People go to the Gibbet for want of Timely Inſtruction, Diſcipline, and Correction, then upon any Incurable Pravity of Nature; And it is mightily the Fault of Parents, Guardians, Tutors and Governors, that ſo many men Miſcarry. They ſuſſer’em at firſt to Run-a head, and when Perverſe Inclinations are Advanc'd once into Habits, there's No Dealing with ’em. It may ſeem ſomewhat a Hard Caſe for the Greater Thieves to Puniſh the Leſs, and to ſee Publique Purloyners and Oppreſſors fit in Triumph upon the Lives of the Little Ones that go to the Gallows: For the Tye of Morality is the ſame upon Both; and they Stand Both Accountable to the Same Maſter. But Time, Power, and Corruption, give a Reputation to the Worst of Practices, and it is no longer Oppreſſion when it comes Gilded with the Name of Authority. This Unequal, and Unreaſonable Judgment of Things, brings many a Great Man to the Stool of Repentance; for when he has Swallow’d more then he can Digeſt, it flicks upon his Conſcience, and will neither Up, nor Down, Now in the Sight of Heaven, the Greater the Temptation, the Leſs is the Sins and yet in the Vogue of the World, it paſſes for an Exploit of Honour, for Kings and States to run away with Whole Countries that they have no Colour, or Pretence to; when many a poor Devil ſtands Condemn’d to a Halter, or a Whipping-Poſt, for the Pilfering of a Silver-Spoon perhaps, or the Robbing of a Hen-Rooſt: Though the Former, all this While, has No Better Title to what he takes, then the Latter; and yet to ſee what a deal of Fulſome Flattery, and Panegyrique we have, upon the Glorious Atchievements of the One; and only ſome Smithfield Ballad perchance, or a Sabbath Breaking Speech, or Conſeſſion, to Embalm the Memory of the Other. To be Short, and Plain; the Offence before God, is at leaſt as Great in a Prince, as in a Begger, and the Morality of a Careful Education holds alike in Both. 'Twas the Mothers ſparing the Rod at firſt, that brought the Child, at the Long Run, to the Halter.
Fab. XCIX.
A Shepherd turn'd Merchant.
A Countryman was Feeding his Flock by the Sea-ſide, and it was ſo Delicate a Fine Day, that the Smoothneſs of the Water Tempted him to leave his Shepherds Buſineſs, and ſet up for a Merchant. So that in All Haſt, he puts off his Stock; Buys aBargain
