Fab. CCV.
An Impertinernt Dr. and his Patient.
A Phyſician was told One Morning that a Certain Patient of his was Dead, why then the Lord's Will be Done, ſays he: We are All Mortal; but if This Man would have forborn Wines, and Us'd Clyſters, I'd have Warranted his Life This Bout for God-a-Mercy. Well, ſays one, but why did you not rather give him This Advice when it might have done him Good, then ſtand Talking of it to no manner of Purpoſe Now the Man is Dead?
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
THIS Fable Recommends to us the Doing of Every thing in its Due Seaſon, for either too Soon or too Late ſignifies Nothing. It is but making Almanacks for the Laſt Year, to ſtand Talking what Might have been done; when the Time of Doing it is paſt. When a Battle is Loſt, This or That, we ſay, might have Prevented it. When a Tumult is Emprov‘d into a Rebellion, and a Government Oyer-turn'd by't, 'tis juſt to as much purpoſe to ſay, This or That might have Sav'd All; As for our Dr. here to ſay, when his Patient was Dead, that it was for want of going ſuch or ſuch a way to Work. We have abundance of Theſe Wiſe-Men in the World that are ſtill looking backward without ſeeing One Inch of the way before them. Not but that the Experience of Things Paſt, may be very Inſtructive to us toward the Making of a Right Judgment upon Things to come, but in ſuch a Caſe as This, it is wholly Vain and Unprofitable to all manner of Intents. 'Tis the Bus’neſs of a Subſtantial and Well-Grounded Wiſdom, to be ſtill looking forward from the Firſt Indiſpoſitions into the Growth and Progreſs of the Diſeaſe. It Traces the Advance of Dangers ſtep by ſtep, and ſhews us the Riſe and Gradations of the Evil, and gives us Light, either toward the Preventing, or the Suppreſſing of it. We have in ſuch an Inſtance as This, the means before us of a True and an Uſeful Perception of Things, whereas Judgments that are made on the Wrong-ſide of the Danger, Amount to no more then an Affectation of Skill, without either Credit or Effect. Let Things be done when they May be done, and When, and As they Ought to be done: As for the Doctor's Iſſing upon the Bus'neſs, when his Patient was Dead, it was juſt to as much purpoſe as if he had Blown Wind in's Breech.
FAB
