Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CLXIII
Fab. CLXIII.
A Boy and Cockles.
SOme People were Roasting of Cockles, and they Hiss'd in the Fire. Well (says a block-headed Boy) These are Villanous Creatures sure, to Sing when their Houses are a-fire over their Heads.
The MORAL.
Nothing can be Well that’s out of Season.
REFLEXION.
THERE's a Time for Jest,and a Time for Earnest,and it is a Dangerous Mistake, not to Distinguish the One from the Other. The Fool's Conceit here had both Clownery, and ill Nature in't, for there's Nothing more Brutal, or Barbarous, then the Humour of Insulting over the Miserable; Nothing more Contrary to Humanity, and Common Sense, then this Scandalous Way of Grinning and Jeering out of Season. But a Childith Conceit does well enough out of the Mouth of a Foolish Boy; for it is but Congruous, that Silly People should be pleas'd with Silly Words, and Things.