they keep us Waking, and Hinder our Repoſe. The Flea thought it hard to ſuffer Death for an Importunity: But to a Man that knows how to Value his Time and his Quiet, One Importunity upon the Neck of Another, is the Killing of a Man Alive, and the very Worſt of Deaths.
Fab. CXL.
A Flea and Hercules.
THere was a Fellow, that upon a Flea-Biting call'd out to Hercules for Help. The Flea gets away, and the Man Expoſtulates upon the Matter. Well! Hercules; (ſays he) You that would not take My Part againſt a Sorry Flea, will never ſtand by me in a Time of Need, againſt a more Powerful Enemy.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
'Tis an Ill Habit to turn Offices and Duties of Piety into Matters and Words only of Courſe; and to Squander away our Wiſhes and our Prayers upon Paltry Fooleries, when the Great Concerns of Life and Death, Heaven and Hell, lye all at ſtake. Who but a Mad man, that has ſo many Neceſſary and Capital Duties of Chriſtianity to Think of, would ever have made a Deliverance from a Flea-Biting a Part of his Litany? It makes our Devotions Ridiculous, to be ſo Unfeeling on the One ſide, and ſo Over-ſenſible, and Sollicicous on the Other, By this Fooliſh and Impertinent Way of our Proceeding toward the Almighty, Men Slide by little and little into ſome ſort of Doubt, if not a Direct Disbelief and Contempt of his Power. And then with the Country Fellow here, if we cannot Obtain Every Vain Thing we Ask, our next Bus’neſs is to take Pet at the Refuſal, and ſo in Revenge to give over Praying for Good and All; and ſo to Renounce Heaven for a Flea-Biting.
Fab. CXLI.
A Man and Two wives.
IT was now Cuckow-Time, and a Certain Middle-Ag'd Man, that was Half-Gray, Half-Brown, took a fancy to Marry Two Wives, of an Age One under Another, and Happy was the Woman that could pleaſe him Beſt. They took Mighty Care of him to All manner of Purpoſes, and ſtill as they were Combing the Good Man's Head, they'd be Picking out here and there aHair
