One would wonder that in a Court where there is so little Kindness, there should be so much _whispering_. Men must brag of kind Letters from Court, at the same time that they do not believe one Word of them. Men at Court think so much of their own Cunning, that they forget other Mens. After a Revolution, You see the _same Men_ in the Drawing-room, and within a Week the same _Flatterers_. _Of_ PUNISHMENT. Wherever a Government knows _when_ to _show_ the Rod, it will not often be put to _use_ it. But between the want of Skill, and the want of Honesty, Faults generally either escape Punishment, or are mended to no Purpose. Men are not hang'd for stealing Horses, but that Horses may not be stolen. Wherever a Knave is not punished, an honest Man is laugh'd at. A Cheat to the Publick is thought infamous, and yet to accuse him is not thought an honourable part. What a Parodox! 'Tis an ill Method, to make the Aggravation of the Crime a Security against the Punishment; so that the Danger is not to _rob_, but not to _rob enough_. Treason must not be _inlayed Work_ of _several Pieces_, it must be an entire Piece of itself. _Accumulative_ in that case is a murdering Word, that carrieth Injustice, and no Sense in it. An _Inference_, though never so rational, should go no farther than to justify a _Suspicion_, not so far as to inflict a _Punishment_. Nothing is so apt to break with Stretching, as an _Inference_; and nothing so ridiculous, as to see how Fools will abuse one. MORAL THOUGHTS, AND REFLECTIONS. _Of the_ WORLD. It is from the Shortness of Thought, that Men imagine there is any great Variety in the World. Time hath thrown a Vail upon the Faults of former Ages, or else we should see the same Deformities we condemn in the present Times. When a Man looketh upon the Rules that are made, he will think there can be no Faults in the World; and when he looketh upon the Faults, there are so many he will be tempted to think there are no Rules. They are not to be reconciled, otherwise than by concluding that which is called _Frailty_ is the incurable _Nature_ of Mankind. A Man that understandeth the World must be weary of it; and a Man who doth not, for that Reason ought not to be pleased with it. The Uncertainty of what is to come, is suck a dark Cloud, that neither Reason nor Religion can quite break through it; and the Condition of Mankind is to be weary of what we do know, and afraid of what we do not. The World is beholden to _generous Mistakes_ for the greatest Part of the Good that is done in it. Our _Vices_ and _Virtues_ couple with one another, and get Children that resemble both their Parents. If a Man can hardly inquire into a Thing he undervalueth, how can a Man of good Sense take pains to understand the World? To understand the World, and to like it, are two things not easily to be reconciled. That which is called an _Able Man_ is a great Over-valuer of the World, and all that belongeth to it.