Bargain of Figs; gets his Freight abord, and away preſently to Sea. It happened to be very Foul Weather: So that the Mariners were fain to Caſt their Whole Lading Over-bord, to ſave Themſelves and the Veſſel. Upon This Miſcarriage, our New Merchant-Adventurer betook himſelf to his Old Trade again; And it happen’d One Day, as he was Tending his Sheep upon the very ſame Coaſt, to be Juſt ſuch a Flattering Tempting Sea again, as That which had Betray’d him Before. Yes, yes, ſays he, When the Devil's Blind! You'd ha’ ſome more Figs, with a Vengeance, Wou'd ye?
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
Affliction makes People Honeſt and Wiſe. Every Man Living has his Weak Side, and no Mortal was ever yet ſo much at Eaſe, but his Shoe Wrung him ſome where or Other; or he Fancy’d ſo at leaſt,and Then it did ſo, The Shepherd would needs be a Merchant; and the Merchant, if he had ſucceeded would ſtill have been Hankering after ſomething elſe. His Levity was a Fault, and his Miſcarriage was a Judgment upon him for’t. The ſaving of his Perſon after the Loſs of his Goods was a Providential Mercy to him; and the bringing of Him home to Himſelf again, was to Convince him of his Error, and to ſhew him, that he was well at Firſt, if he could have kept ſo, He was in a State of Eaſe, Peace, Innocence, and Safety: And he that will Sacrifice all Thoſe Bleſſings to a Reſtleſs Appetite, deſerves to be Miſerable. Our Shepherd’s Caſe, in ſhort here, is every Man's Caſe that Quits a Moral Certainty for an Uncertainty, and Leaps from the Honeſt Bus'neſs he was brought up to, into a Trade he has no Skill in.
Fab. C.
An Old Man and a Lyon.
A Perſon of Quality dream't one Night that he ſaw a Lyon Kill his only Son: Who was, it ſeems, a Generous Cavalier, and a Great Lover of the Chace. This Phanſy ran in the Father's Head, to that Degree, that he Built his Son a Houſe of Pleaſure, on purpoſe to keep him out of Harms Way; and ſpar'd neither Art nor Coſt to make it a Delicious Retreate. ThisHouſe,
