is Clear, Strong and Edifying: We are either not to Fear Death at all, or to Fear it every moment of our Lives; nay, and in all the Forms that ever it appear'd in, which will put us to ſuch a ſtand, that we ſhall not dare even to Live for fear of Dying. We muſt neither Eat, nor Drink, nor Breathe, nor Sleep, if we come once to Boggle at Preſidents, and at the doing of thoſe things over again, that ever any Man dy'd of before. There is not one inſtant of Life in fine, but may be our Laſt. Beſide, that we Live, not only in the daily Danger of Death, but in a continual Certainty of it: So that the Queſtion is not how, or of what this or that Man Dy'd, but the Inevitable Fate and Mortality of Mankind. One Man dies in his Bed, another at Sea, a Third in the Field; this Man of one Accident, or Diſtemper, that of another: And what is there more in all this now, then ſo many ſeveral ways to the ſame Journeys End? There is no ſuch Preſervative againſt the Fear of Death, as the Conſcience of a Good Life; and if we would have it Eaſie, we muſt make the Thought of it Familiar to us.
Fab. CCCXCI.
Mice, Cat and a Bell.
THere was a Devilliſh Sly Cat it ſeems, in a certain Houſe; and the Mice were ſo Plagu'd with her at every turn, that they call'd a Court to Adviſe upon ſome way to prevent being ſurprizd. If you'll be Rul'd by me, (ſays a Member of the Board,) there's nothing like Hanging a Bell about the Cats Neck, to give Warning before-hand , when Puſs is a coming. They all lookt upon't as the beſt Contrivance that the Caſe would bear. Well (ſays another) and now we are agreed upon the Bell, ſay who ſhall put it about the Cats Neck. There was no body in fine that would Undertake it, and ſo the Expedient fell to the Ground.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
Deſperate Caſes require Deſperate Remedies; but let the Hazzard of this or that Part of a Body be what it will, it is matter of Duty, Juſtice and Policy to conſult the Good of the whole. It was the Intereſt ofthe
