find your Grandfather was Whipt there by That Name We have in fine a World of Boasting Mules among us that don't care for being Minded of their Braying Fathers But 't is the Fate of These Vain-Glorious Fops to be Thus Met withall and your Counterfeit Men of Honor seldom come off Better Wherefore let every Man look well about him before he Boasts of his Pedigree to see if he had not an Asse to his Father FAB CXIX A Dog and a Wolfe A Wolfe took a Dog napping at his Masters Door and when he was just about to Worry him the Poor Creature begg'd hard only for a Reprieve Alas says he I 'm as Lean at present as Carryon but we have a Wedding at our House within these Two or Three Days that will Plump me up you shall see with Good Cheare Pray have but Patience 'till Then and when I 'm in a Little Better Case Ill throw my self in the very Mouth of ye The Wolfe took his Word and so let him go but passing some Few Days after by the same House again he spy'd the Dog in the Hall and bad him Remember his Promise Heark ye my Friend says the Dog Whenever you Catch me Asleep again on the Wrong side of the Door never Trouble your Head to Wait for a Wedding The MORAL Experience Works upon Many Brutes more then upon Some Men. They are not to be Gull'd twice with the same Trick And at the Worst a Bad Shift is Better than None REFLEXION 'T is good to Provide against All Chances both Sleeping and Waking for a Man cannot be too Circumspect upon Condition on the other hand that his Caution do not make him Over-sollicitous Past Dangers make us Wiser for the Future As the Dog after he had been snapt at the Door had the Wit to lye in the Hall which tells us that a Wise Body is not to be Caught Twice by the same Snare and Trick His Promise to the Wolf was a kind of a Dog-Case of Conscience and the Wolfe play'd the Fool in Taking his Word for That which he was oblig'd not to Perform FAB CXX A Lyon and a Bull. IN the Days of Yore when Bulls liv'd upon Mutton there was a Lyon had a Design upon a Mighty Bull and gave him a very Civil Invitation to come and Sup with him for says he I have gotten a Sheep and you must needs take Part on 't The Bull Promis'd and Went but so soon as ever he saw what a Clutter there was with Huge Over-grown Pots Pans and Spits away he scowr'd Immediately The Lyon presently call'd after him and Ask'd him Whither in such Hast Oh says the Bull 't is High Time for me to be Jogging when I see such Preparation for This Provision looks as if you were to have a Bull for your Supper rather then a Mutton The MORAL When a Man has both an Interest and an Inclination to Betray us there 's No Trusting him REFLEXION THERE 's No Trusting to the Fair Words and Countenances of Bloudy Men He 's sure to be Ruin'd that lays himself at the Mercy of Those that Live upon the Spoyle Their very Complements are Snares as the Lyons Invitation of the Bull to Sup with him was but the Cover of a Design he had to Supp upon the Bull himself FAB CXXI A Lyon in Love A Lyon fell in Love with a Country Lass and desir'd her Father's Consent to have her in Marriage The Answer he gave was Churlish enough He 'd never Agree to 't he say'd upon any Terms to Marry his Daughter to a Beast The Lyon gave him a Sowr Look upon 't which brought the Bumkin upon Second Thoughts to strike up a Bargain with him upon these Conditions that his Teeth should be Drawn and his Nailes Par'd for Those were Things he say'd that the Foolish Girle was Terribly afraid of The Lyon sends for a Surgeon immediately to do the Work as what will not Love make a Body do And so soon as ever the Operation was Over he goes and Challenges the Father upon his Promise The Countryman seeing the Lyon Disarm'd Pluck'd up a Good Heart and with a Swindging Cudgel so Order'd the Matter that he broke off the Match The MORAL An Extravagant Love Consults neither Life Fortune nor Reputation but Sacrifices All that can be Dear to a Man of Sense and Honor to the Transports of an Inconsiderate Passion REFLEXION THIS Fable will look well enough in the Moral how Fantastical soever it may appear at first Blush in the Lines and Traces of it Here 's a Beast in Love with a Virgin which is but a Reverse of the Preposterous Passions we meet with Frequently in the World when Reasonable Creatures of Both Sexes fall in love with Those that in the Allusion may allmost without a Figure pass for Beasts There 's Nothing so Fierce or so Savage but Love will Soften it Nothing so Generous but it will Debauche it Nothing so sharp sighted in Other Matters but it throws a Mist before the Eyes on 't It puts the Philosopher beside his Latin and to summ up All in a Little where This Passion Domineers neither Honour nor Virtue is able to stand before it The Lyon's Parting with his Teeth and his Clawes in a Complement to his New Mistress is no more then what we see Every Day Exemplify'd in the case of making over Estates and Joyntures with the Malice Prepense all this While of holding their Noses to the Grindstone and with the Girles Father here of Jilting them at last FAB CXXII A Lyoness and a Fox A Numerous Issue passes in the World for a Blessing and This Consideration made a Fox cast it in the Teeth of a Lyoness that she brought forth but One Whelp at a time Very Right says the Other but then That One is a Lyon The MORAL 'T is a Common Thing to Value things more by the Number then by the Excellency of them REFLEXION THERE are more Fools in the World then Wise Men and more Knaves then Honest Men so that it is not Number but Excellency that Inhaunces the Value of Any thing The most copious Writers are commonly the Arrantest Scriblers And so in much Talking the Tongue is apt to run before the Wit In Many Words there is Folly but a Word in Season is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Says the Oracle of Truth it self And we have it from the same Authority that our very Prayers when they are Loud and Long are in the Sight of Heaven no better then so much Babbling and that they have More in them of Hypocrisy and Ostentation then of Affection and Judgment The Great Creator of the Universe whose single FIAT was sufficient to have made Ten Thousand Worlds in the Twinkling of an Eye Allowed himself Six Dayes yet for the Finishing of his Purpose Paus'd upon Every Days Work Consider'd of it Review'd it and Pronounc'd it Good and so Proceeded Right Reason Moves in some Proportion by
bringing of a Scandal upon Common Justice by a most Permcious Example that ends in the very starving as well as the 〈◊〉 of their Benefactors for 't is impossible but they must Pine and Wither that entertain such Hangers-on This Gourd in fine is the true Emblem of a Court-Leech he Fastens and Sucks without either Mercy or Measure and when he has drawn his Master Dry he very fairly drops off Changes his Party and so leaves him FAB CCCLXXXI A Raven and Wolves A Raven that had waited upon a Herd of Wolves a whole Days Ramble came to 'em at Night for a share of the Prey they had got The Wolves answer'd him that if he had gone along with 'em for Pure Love and not for his Gut he should have had his Part But said they a Dead Wolf if it had so fall'n out would have serv'd a Ravens turn as well as a Dead Sheep The MORAL Most People Worship for the Loaves from the very Plough-Tayl to the Crosier and Scepter and the World bows to that that 's uppermost REFLEXION 'T IS the Intention that qualifies the Action neither is it for any Man to pretend Merit or to challenge a Reward for attending his own Business The Raven Dogg'd the Wolves for his Supper Now if these Wolves themselves had been Hounded by a Herd of Tygers that should have Worry'd Them one sort of Carrion would have been as good to the Raven as another This is the Case as well betwixt Man and Man as of Wolves and Ravens that suck the Blood of those they Follow and Depend upon under a Pretext of Service and Kindness How many Examples have we seen of this among those that follow Courts and the Leaders of those Followers If the Master gets the Better on 't they come in for their Snack and if he happens to fall in the Chace his Temporising Friends are the Foremost to break in upon the Quarry Whether the Wolves Took or were Taken was all a case to the Raven FAB CCCLXXXII Arion and a Dolphin THis Famous Arion was a Great Favourite of Periander the King of Corinth he Travelled from thence into Sicily and Italy where he gather'd a great Mass of Treasure and gain'd over and above the Good-Will and Esteem of all People wherever he came From thence he put himself Abord a Corinthian Vessel to go back again where he got an inkling among the Ships Crew of a Conspiracy to take away his Life He Discours'd the Mariners about it and came in the end to this composition that if he would cast himself presently into the Sea and let the Conspirators have his Mony there should be no further Violence offer'd to his Person Upon this Agreement he obtained Liberty to give them only one Song before he Leap'd Overbord which he did and then Plung'd into the Sea The Seamen had no thought of his ever coming up again but by a Wonderful Providence a Dolphin took him upon his Back and carried him off safe to an Island from whence he went immediately to Corinth and presented himself before Periander just in the condition the Dolphin left him and so told the Story The King order'd him to be taken into Custody as an Impostor but at the same time caused Enquiry to be made after the Ship and the Seamen that he spake of and to know if they had heard any thing of one Arion where they had been They said Yes and that he was a Man of Great Reputation in Italy and of a Vast Estate Upon these Words Arion was Produced before them with the very Harp and Cloaths he had when he Leapt into the Sea The Men were so confounded at the Spectacle that they had not the Face to deny the Truth of the Story The MORAL Mony is the Universal Idol Profit Governs the World and Quid Dabitis Tradam may be the Motto But Providence yet in the Conclusion makes all things work for the Best REFLEXION SOME Men are worse than some Brutes and little other than Beasts in the shape of Reasonable Creatures This Fable shews us that Men of Blood will stick at no Profitable Villany but they are Blind Deaf and Inexorable where Mony 's in the case The Charms of Reason Art and Innocence are Lost upon 'em and the Sea it self we see had more Pity for Arion then the Men. The Dolphin represents the Instrument of an Overruling Providence that interposes Miraculously to our Deliverance when ordinary Means fail us The Wonderful Discovery in the Conclusion serves to shew us that Murder will out FAB CCCLXXXIII A Spider and the Gout A Spider that had been at Work a Spinning went Abroad once for a little Country Air to Refresh her self and fell into Company with the Gout that by the way had much ado to keep Pace with her When they came at Night to take up their Lodging very Inquisitive they were into the Character and Condition of their Host But the Spider without any more Ceremony went into the House of a Rich Burgher and fell presently to her Net-work of Drawing Cobwebs up and down from one side of the Room to the other but there were so many Brooms and Devillish House-wenches still at hand that whatever she set up this Moment was swept away the next So that this miserable Insect was the only Creature within those Walls that felt either Want or Trouble But the Gout all this while was fain to Kennel in the very Rendezvous of common Beggers where she was as uneasy as Hard Lodging Course Bread and Puddle-Water could make her After a tedious and a restless Night on 't they met again next Morning by Sun-Rise and gave one another the History of their Adventure The Spider tells tells first how Barbarously she had been us'd how cursedly Nice and Cleanly the Master of the House was how impertinently Diligent his Servants were c. And then the Gout Requited the Spider with the Story of her Mortifications too They were in short so unsatisfied with their Treatment that they resolved to take quite contrary Measures the next Night The Spider to get into a Cottage and the Gout to look out for a Palace They did what they Propos'd and never were Creatures better pleas'd with their Entertainment The Gout had her Rich Furniture Down-Beds Beccafica's Pheasants Partridges Generous Wines the best in fine of every thing that was to be had for Mony and all with Pure Heart and Good will as we say The Spider was as much at Ease on the other hand for she was got into a House where she might draw her Lines Work Spin Mend what was Amiss Perfect what she had Begun and no Brooms Snares or Plots to Interrupt or disturb her The Two Travellers after this met once again and upon conferring Notes they were both so well satisfied that the Gout took up a Resolution for ever after to keep Company with the Rich the Noble and the Voluptuous and the Spider with the Poor and
and Confesses an All-Seeing and an Almighty Power and yet at the Same Time most Blasphemously Affronts it 'T is a Great Unhappiness that Children should be so much Addicted as we see they are to This Way and Humour of Shuffling But it is a Greater Shame and Mischief for Parents Governours and Tutors to Encourage and Allow them in 't and so Effectually to Train them up to One of the most Dangerous Corruptions they are Capable of in Countenancing the very Ground-Work of a False and Treacherous Life There must be No Paradoxing or Playing Tricks with Things Sacred Truth is the Great Lesson of Reasonable Nature both in Philosophy and in Religion Now there is a Truth of Opinion a Truth of Fact and a Truth in Simplicity and Sincerity of Thought Word and Deed. The Last of the Three is the Truth that is here in question The Knack of Fast and Loose passes with a world of Foolish People for a Turn of Wit but they are not aware all this while of the Desperate Consequences of an Ill Habit and that the Practice of Falsifying with Men will lead us on Insensibly to a Double-Dealing even with God Himself FAB LIX A Dog and a Butcher AS a Butcher was Busy about his Meat a Dog runs away with a Sheeps Heart The Butcher saw him upon the Gallop with a piece of Flesh in 's Mouth and call'd out after him Heark ye Friend says he you may e'en make the Best of your Purchase so long as Y 'ave made Me the Wiser for 't The MORAL It may serve as a Comfort to us in All Our Calamities and Afflictions that He that Loses any thing and gets Wisdom by 't is a Gainer by the Loss REFLEXION NO man is to Account any thing a Loss if he gets Wisdom by the bargain Beside that Bought Wit is Best It is in some Proportion in the Business of this World as it is in that of the Next In the Cases I mean of Losses Miscarriages and Disappointments We are in Both Respects the Better for them Provided they be not Mortal that is for they are Monitory and Instructive Affliction makes a man both Honest and Wise for the smart brings him to a sense of his Errour and the Experiment to the Knowledge of it We have I know not how many Adages to back the Reason of This Moral Hang a Dog upon a Crab-Tree we say and He 'll never love Verjuyce And then we have it again in That Common saying The Burnt Child Dreads the Fire 'T is Wandring Many times whether it be in Opinion or in Travelling that sets a man Right in his Judgment and brings him into the way The Dogs running away with the Flesh Does as good as bid the Cook look Better to 't Another time A Dog and a Sheep See Fable and Moral 29. FAB LX. A Wolfe a Lamb and a Goat AS a Lamb was following a Goat Up comes a Wolfe wheedling to get him aside and make a Breakfast of him Why what a Fool art thou says the Wolfe that may'st have thy Belly full of Sweet Milk at Home to leave thy Mother for a Nasty Stinking Goat Well says the Lamb but my Mother has Plac'd me here for my Security and you 'd fain get me into a Corner to Worry me Pray'e which of the Two am I to Trust to Now The MORAL Where there 's the Order of a Parent on the One side and the Advice of an Ill Man and a Profess'd Enemy on the Other in Opposition to That Command Disobedience would be Undoubtedly the Ready Way to Destruction REFLEXION THIS Fable Preaches both Obedience and Caution the One as a Matter of Duty the Other as a Point of Prudence The Wolfe sings directly the same Note here with the Common Seducers and Incendiaries that we Meet with in the World And to the same End too for they are both Agreed upon 't that so soon as ever they shall have withdrawn the Lambs or the People from their Religion and Allegiance and gotten them out of the Pale and Protection of their Parents and Governours they 'l make a Prey of 'em Themselves What 's the Wheedling of the Lamb out of the Station where Authority had Plac'd him to go home again for a Belly full of Sweet Milk but a State Trick of Inveigling the Multitude into a Fools-Paradise without Understanding One word of the Matter in Question But some Lambs are Wiser and Honester then some Men And This very Lamb's Answer might have become the Mouth of a Good Christian and a Good Subject For a Conclusion The Wolves Preaching to the Sheep and the Foxes Preaching to the Geese hold forth the same Moral FAB LXI A Cat and Uenus A Young Fellow that was Passionately in Love with a Cat made it his Humble Suit to Venus to turn Puss into a Woman The Transformation was Wrought in the Twinkling of an Eye and Out she comes a Very Bucksome Lass. The Doting Sot took her home to his Bed and bad Fair for a Litter of Kittens by her That Night But as the Loving Couple lay Snugging together a Toy took Venus in the Head to try if the Cat had Chang'd her Manners with her Shape and so for Experiment turn'd a Mouse loose into the Chamber The Cat upon This Temptation Started out of the Bed and without any regard to the Marriage-Joys made a Leap at the Mouse which Venus took for so High an Affront that she turn'd the Madam into a Puss again The MORAL The Extravagant Transports of Love and the Wonderful Force of Nature are unaccountable The One carries us Out of our Selves and the Other brings us Back again REFLEXION THIS is to lay before us the Charms and Extravagances of a Blind Love It Covers all Imperfections and Considers neither Quality nor Merit How many Noble Whores has it made and how many Imperial Slaves And let the Defects be never so Gross it either Palliates or Excuses them The Womans Leaping at the Mouse tells us also how Impossible it is to make Nature Change her Biass and that if we shut her out at the Door she 'll come in at the Window Here 's the Image of a Wild and Fantastical Love under the Cover of as Extravagant a Fable and it is all but Fancy at last too for men do not See or Tast or Find the Thing they Love but they Create it They Fashion an Idol in what Figure or Shape they please Set it up Worship it Dote upon it Pursue it and in fine run Mad for 't How many Passions have we seen in the World Ridiculous enough to Answer All the Follies of this Imagination It was much for Venus to turn a Cat into a Woman and for that Cully again to take That Cat for a Woman What is it Less now for a Fop to Form an Idea of the Woman he Dyes for Every jot as Unlike That Woman as the Cat is to the Mistress Let This Suffice for the Impostures and
Ought to do Let Every thing Move March and Govern it self according to the Proper Disposition of the Creature for it would be Every Jot as Incongruous for a Crab to Walk like a Man as for a Man to Walk like a Crab. This may be apply'd to the Lessons that are given us for the Ordering of our Lives and Families But above All Things Children should not be Betray'd into the Love and Practice of any thing that is Amiss by Setting Evil Examples before them for their Talent is only Imitation and 't is Ill Trusting Mimicks in such a Case without a Judgment to Distinguish This Allegory may pass for a very Good Lecture to Governors Parents and Tutors to behave themselves Reverently both in Word and Deed before their Pupils with a kind of Awful Tenderness for the Innocency and Simplicity of Youth For Examples of Vices or Weaknesses have the same Effect upon Children with Examples of Vertue Nay it holds in Publique too as well as in Private that the Words and Actions of our Superiors have the Authority and Force of a Recommendation Regis ad Exemplum is so True that 't is Morally Impossible to have a Sober People under a Mad Government For where Lewdness is the Way to Preferment Men are Wicked by Interest as well by Imitation But to Return to the Stress of the Fable Let a Goose Walk like a Goose and leave Nature to do her Own Bus'ness her Own Way FAB CCXXIII. The Sun and the Wind. THere happen'd a Controversy betwixt the Sun and the Wind which was the Stronger of the Two and they put the Point upon This Issue There was a Traveller upon the Way and which of the Two could make That Fellow Quit his Cloak should carry the Cause The Wind fell presently a Storming and threw Hail-Shot over and above in the very Teeth of him The Man Wraps himself up and keeps Advancing still in spight of the Weather But This Gust in a short Time Blew over and then the Sun Brake out and fell to Work upon him with his Beams but still he Pushes forward Sweating and Panting till in the End he was forc'd to Quit his Cloak and lay himself down upon the Ground in a Cool Shade for his Relief So that the Sun in the Conclusion carry'd the Point The MORAL Reason and Resolution will Support a Man against All the Violences of Malice and Fortune but in a Wallowing Qualm a Man's Heart and Resolution fails him for want of Fit Matter to Work upon REFLEXION 'T IS a Part of Good Discretion in All Contests to Consider over and over the Power the Strength and the Interest of our Adversary and likewise again that though One Man may be more Robust then Another That Force may be Baffled yet by Skill and Address It is in the Bus'ness of Life as it is in a Storm or a Calm at Sea The Blast may be Impetuous but seldom lasts long and though the Vessel be Press'd never so Hard a Skilful Steers-man will yet bear up against it But in a Dead Calm a Man loses his Spirits and lies in a Manner Expos'd as the Scorn and Spectacle of Ill Fortune FAB CCXXIV. An Ass in a Lyon's Skin THere was a Freak took an Ass in the Head to Scoure abroad upon the Ramble and away he goes into the Woods Masquerading up and down in a Lyon's Skin The World was his Own for a while and wherever he went Man and Beast Fled before him But he had the Hap in the Conclusion partly by his Voice and partly by his Ears to be Discover'd and consequently Uncas'd well Laugh'd at and well Cudgell'd for his Pains The MORAL The World abounds in Terrible Fansarons in the Masque of Men of Honour But These Braggadocio's are Easy to be Detected for no Counterfeit of any Good Quality or Vertue whatsoever will abide the Test. REFLEXION THERE 's Nothing more Frequent or more Ridiculous in the World then for an Ass to Dress himself up like a Lyon A Dunce sets up for a Doctor a Beggar for a Man of Estate a Scoundrel for a Cavalier a Polrcon for a Sword-man But Every Fool still has some Mark or other to be Known by thorough All Disguises and the More he takes upon him the Arranter Sot he makes Himself when he comes to be Unmasqu'd Every Fool or Fools Fellow carries More or Less in his Face the Signature of his Manners though the Character may be much more Legible in some then in Others As the Ass was found out by his Voice and by his Ears Let him keep his Words betwixt his Teeth and he may pass Muster perhaps for a Man of some Sense but if he comes to Open once he 's Lost For Nature never put the Tongue of a Philosopher into the Mouth of a Coxcomb But however let him be in truth what he Will he is yet so Conscious of what he Ought to be that he makes it his Business to pass for what he is not And in the Matter of Counterfeits it is with Men as it is with False Mony One Piece is more or less Passable then Another as it happens to have more or less Sense or Sterling in the Mixture One General Mark of an Impostor is This That he Out-does the Original As the Ass here in the Lyon-skin made Fifty times more Clutter then the Lyon would have done in his Own And Himself Fifty times the more Ridiculous for the Disguise If a Man turn his Thoughts now from This Fancy in the Forrest to the Sober Truth of Daily Experience in the World he shall find Asses in the Skins of Men Infinitely more Contemptible then This Ass in the Skin of a Lyon How many Terrible Asses have we seen in the Garb of Men of Honour How many Insipid and Illiterate Fops that take upon them to Retail Politiques and sit for the Picture of Men of State How many Iudas's with Hail Master in their Mouths How many Church-Robbers that Write themselves Reformers In One Word Men do Naturally love to bethought Greater Wiser Holier Braver and Juster then they Are and in fine Better Qualify'd in All Those Faculties that may give them Reputation among the People then we find 'em to be The Moral of This Fable Hits all sorts of Arrogant Pretenders and runs Effectually into the Whole Bus'ness of Humane Life We have it in the very Cabinets and Councels of State the Bar the Bench the Change the Schools the Pulpits All Places in short are full of Quacks Jugglers and Plagiaries that set up for Men of Quality Conscience Philosophy and Religion So that there are Asses with Short Ears as well as with Long and in Robes of Silk and Dignity as well as in Skins of Hair In Conclusion An Ass of the Long Robe when he comes once to be Detected looks Infinitely Sillier then he would have done in his own Shape Neither is Aesop's Ass Laugh'd at here for his Ears or for his Voice but for
the very Life of Nature and we have a Horror for the Monstrous Productions of the Brain as well as for those of the Body Wherefore the Test of an Edifying Parable is a Congruity of the Moral to the Lines of Practice and to the Image of Truth The Resemblance must be Touching and a Man must have a Feeling of it to be Mov'd with it 'T is never right 'till I can say to my self How many Instances have I seen in the World of this Cobler turn'd Doctor How many Underlayers that when they could not live upon their Trade have rai'sd themselves from Cobbling to Fluxing and taken upon them to cast the Water of a Body Politick as well as of a Body Natural This minds me of a Cobbling Colonel of Famous Memory and he was a States-man too of the Long Parliament Edition to a Lady of Quality in Ireland She had been so terribly Plunder'd that the Poor Woman went almost Barefoot And as she was Warming her Feet once in the Chimny Corner the Colonel took notice that her Shoes wanted Capping Lord Madam says he Why d' ye wear no Better Shoes Why truly Sir says she all the Coblers are turn'd Colonels and I can get no body to Mend ' em Now to do Right to the Apologue there are several Remarkable Innuendo's in 't Here 's First a Coxcomb that Commences Doctor Secondly A kind of an Individuum Vagum dress'd up in the Character of a Man of Quality Thirdly From being ready to Starve Himself he makes a very good Living out of the Privilege of Poysoning and Destroying other People Fourthly It gives us to Understand the Force of Impudence on the one hand and of Ignorance on the other for what was it but the Brazen Face of the Quack assisted by the Silliness of the Mobile that Advanc'd this Upstart from the Stall to the Stage It is not to be Imagin'd the Power of Tumour and Pretence Bold Looks Hard Words and a Supercilious Brow upon the Passions of the Multitude To say the Truth on 't we are impos'd upon by Botchers and Men of Forehead without Common Sense in all Trades and Professions even to the Venturing of Soul Body Life and Estate upon their Skill Honesty and Credit Can any Man look about him in the World now and cast his Eye and Thought upon Every-days Instances of some of these wonderful Improvements and Conversions without Saying to Himself The Mythologist Pointed at all these Men in this Fable For it holds as well from Foppery to Policy from Baseness to Honour and from Beggery to Superfluity as from Patching to Purging and from the Stall to the Urinal But a Tryal of Skill at last puts him past his Latin and when it comes to that once he 'll have more Wit then to Venture his Life upon his Antidote FAB CCCCII. A Cobler and a Financier THere was a Droll of a Cobler that led a Life as Merry as the Day was Long and Singing and Joking was his Delight But it was not altogether so well with a Neighbour of his though a Great Officer in the Treasury for there was no Singing nor hardly any Sleeping under his Roof Or if he happen'd to Doze a little now and then in a Morning 't was Forty to One the Jolly Cobler Wak'd him How often would he be Wishing to Himself that Sleep were to be bought in the Market as well as Meat and Drink While his Head was working upon this Thought the Toy took him in the Crown to send for the Songster Come Neighbour says he thou liv'st like a Prince here How much a Year canst thou get by thy Trade Nay Faith Master says the Cobler I keep no ' Count-Books but if I can get Bread from Hand to Mouth and make Even at the Years End I never trouble my self for to Morrow Well says the Officer but if you know what you can Earn by the Day you may easily cast up what that comes to a Year Ay says he but that 's more or less as it falls out for we have such a World of Holy-Days Festivals and New Saints that 't is a Woundy Hindrance to a Poor Man that Lives by his Labour This Dry Blunt Way took with the Officer and so he went on with him Come my Friend says he You came into my House a Cobler what will you say now if I send you out on 't an Emperor and so he put a Purse of a Hundred Crowns into his Hand Go your ways says he there 's an Estate for ye and be a Good Husband of it Away goes the Cobler with his Gold and in Conceit as Rich as if the Mines of Peru had been empty'd into his Lap. Up he Locks it immediately and all the Comforts of his Life together with his Crowns in the same Chest. From the time that he was Master of this Treasure there was no more Singing or Sleeping at our House not a Cat stirr'd in the Garret but an Out-cry of Thieves and his Cottage was so haunted with Cares Jealousies and Wild Alarums that his very Life was become a Burden to him So that after a short time away trudges he to the Officer again Ah Sir says he if you have any Charity for a Miserable Creature do but let me have my Songs and my Sleep again and do you take back your Hundred Crowns with a Hundred Thousand Thanks into the Bargain The MORAL The Poor Man that has but from Hand to Mouth passes his Time Merrily and without any Fear or Danger of Thieves Publick or Private but the House that has Mony In 't is as good as Haunted REFLEXION THIS Fable makes Riches to be a great Enemy to our Repose and tells us that the Cares of Mony lye heavier upon a Good Man then the Inconveniences of an Honest Poverty He that sets the Anxiety Fears and Dangers that accompany Riches against the Chearful and the Easie Security of a Private Fortune and Condition may very well be Thankful for the One without Repining at the other He that sets his Heart upon any thing in this World makes himself a Slave to his Hopes and Fears and is as sure of being Disappointed as he is of the Uncertainty of Human Affairs Let it be Love Preferment Court-Favours Popularity or what else it will some Rival or other he must expect to meet with in all his Pretensions The Proud Man's Inclination is Glory High Place in the World and the Applause of the People The Envious Man's Heart is set upon doing Shrew'd Turns Defamatory Calumnies and Revenge In few Words Violent Affections never fail of being Uneasie and Importune But of all Extravagant Passions the Love of Mony is the most Dangerous in regard of the greatest Variety of Difficulties that attend it There may be some few Pretenders to a Beautiful Lady some few Candidates for the favour of a Popular Choice But these are Competitions that Intermit and go off and on as it happens upon this or that
these Sick Kites in the World that after a Sacrilegious Life spent in the Robbing of the Church would willingly be thought to Die in the Bosom of it FAB XVIII A Swallow and other Birds THere was a Country Fellow at work a Sowing his Grounds and a Swallow being a Bird famous for Providence and Foresight call'd a company of Little Birds about her and bad em take Good Notice what that Fellow was a doing You must know says the Swallow that all the Fowlers Nets and Snares are made of Hemp or Flax and that 's the Seed that he is now a Sowing Pick it up in time for fear of what may come on 't In short they put it off till it took Root and then again till it was sprung up into the Blade Upon this the Swallow told 'em once for All that it was not yet too Late to prevent the Mischief if they would but bestir themselves and set Heartily about it but finding that no Heed was given to what she said She e'en bad adieu to her old Companions in the Woods and so betook her self to a City Life and to the Conversation of Men. This Flax and Hemp came in time to be Gather'd and Wrought and it was this Swallows Fortune to see Several of the very same Birds that she had forewarn'd taken in Nets made of the very Stuff she told them off They came at last to be Sensible of the folly of slipping their Opportunity but they were Lost beyond All Redemption first The MORAL Wise Men read Effects in their Causes but Fools will not Believe them till 't is too late to prevent the Mischief Delay in these Cases is Mortal REFLEXION MANY and Many a time has this been our own Case both publick and private when we would not Believe the Danger of things 'till the Evil was come upon us But Good Council is cast away upon the Arrogant the Self-conceited or the stupid who are either too Proud to take it or too Heavy to Understand it The Sowing of Hemp-seed and of Plot-seed is much at one The Design and the End are Destruction Both Alike The Swallow proposes the Preventing of ill Consequences in their Causes and Obviating the Mischief Betimes But that Counsel is either thrown off with a Raillery or not minded at all Governours would have enough to do they Cry to trouble their Heads with the Politiques of every Medling Officious Impertinent Well! It takes Root shews itself in the Blade Advances and Ripens And still the Swallow is but the same Fool over again for continuing the same Advice The Hemp comes at last to be pluckt-up Pill'd Dress'd and Spun The Nets and Snares made and laid and yet all this while the Birds could never find a time to Bethink themselves till they came to be Hamper'd and Ruined past Recovery What is all this but a perfect Emblem of the Method of Destroying Kingdoms and States Cautions or the common Ways of Anticipating or Defeating 〈◊〉 are below the Wisdom of men of Intrigue and Cabal till at last a Faction comes to be too hard for the Government Now whether this befals a Kingdom by Envy Ignorance Conspiracy Treachery or Presumption it comes all to a case so long as it does the Work It is the Bane of Society and in truth even of particular Persons too when betwixt Laziness and Neglect men slip all the Opportunities with the Birds here in the Fable of a Safe and of a Happy Life FAB XIX The Frogs Chuse a King IN the days of Old when the Frogs were All at liberty in the Lakes and grown quite Weary of living without Government they Petition'd Iupiter for a King to the End that there might be some Distinction of Good and Evil by Certain Equitable Rules and Methods of Reward and Punishment Iupiter that knew the Vanity of their Hearts threw them down a Log for their Governour which upon the first Dash frighted the whole Mobile of them into the Mudd for the very fear on 't This Panick Terror kept them in Awe for a while 'till in good time one Frog Bolder than the Rest put up his Head and look'd about him to see how squares went with their New King Upon This he calls his Fellow-Subjects together Opens the truth of the Case and Nothing would serve them then but Riding a-top of him Insomuch that the Dread they were in before is now turn'd into Insolence and Tumult This King they said was too Tame for them and Iupiter must needs be Entreated to send 'em Another He did so but Authors are Divided upon it whether 't was a Stork or a Serpent though whether of the Two soever it was he left them neither Liberty nor Property but made a Prey of his Subjects Such was their Condition in fine that they sent Mercury to Iupiter yet once again for Another King whose Answer was This They that will not be Contented when they are Well must be Patient when Things are Amiss with them and People had better Rest where they are than go farther and fare Worse The MORAL The Mobile are Uneasie without a Ruler They are as Restless with one and the oftn'er they shift the Worse they Are So that Government or No Government a King of God's Making or of the Peoples or none at all the Multitude are never to be satisfied REFLEXION THIS Fable under the Emblem of the Frogs sets forth the Murmuring and the Unsteadiness of the Common People that in a State of Liberty will have a King They do not like him when they have him and so Change again and grow Sicker of the Next than they were of the Former Now the Bus'ness is only this They are never satisfy'd with their present Condition but their Governors are still either too Dull or too Rigid 'T is a Madness for him that 's Free to put himself into a state of Bondage and rather than bear a Less Misfortune to Hazzard a Greater This Allusion of the Frogs runs upon All Four as they say in the Resemblance of the Multitude both for the Humour the Murmur the Importunity and the subject-Matter of the Petition Redress of Grievances is the Question and the Devil of it is that the Petitioners are never to be pleas'd In one Fit they cannot be Without Government In Another they cannot bear the Yoak on 't They find Absolute Freedom to be a Direct State of War for where there 's no Means of either preventing Strife or Ending it the Weaker are still a Prey to the Stronger One King is too Soft and Easie for them Another too Fierce And then a Third Change would do Better they think Now 't is Impossible to satisfie people that would have they know not what They Beg and Wrangle and Appeal and their Answer is at last that if they shift again they shall be still Worse By which the Frogs are given to Understand the very truth of the Matter as we find it in the World both in the Nature
find it their Duty to be Thankful that it is no Worse with Themselves It is some Relief to the Miserable to shew them that there are Others yet more Miserable and there is not any thing so Timerous but something else is affraid of It. There are Those 't is True that Die for the very Fear of Death and Plunge themselves into Certain Misery upon the Bare Apprehension of it But this comes rather from their Spleen than their Misfortune Since so it is that Nature Provides for the Necessities of All Creatures and for the Well-Being of Every One in it's kind And since it is not in the Power of any Creature to make it self Other than what by Providence it was Design'd to be what a Madness is it to Wish our selves Other than what we Are and what we Must continue to Be Since the Thing is Bounded and the Whole Matter Pre-Determin'd Every Atome of the Creation has its Place Assign'd Every Creature has its Proper Figure and there is No Disputing with Him that Made it so Why have not I This and why have not I That are Questions for a Philosopher of Bedlam to ask and we may as well Cavil at the Motions of the Heavens the Vicissitude of Day and Night and the Succession of the Seasons as Expostulate with Providence upon any of the rest of Gods Works The Asse would have Horns and the Tinker would fain be in Bed with my Lady The Ape would have a Tail and why should not a Mountebank Complain that he is not a Minister of State or Iustice But in short the Poor Wretched Blind Mole puts in with her Doctrine to take up the Quarrel And what 's the Case of the Hares now but an Instance to Fortifie us against Panick Frights and Terrors for Trivial Causes where the Fears are a great deal more Terrible than the Dangers In All These Cases we fancy our selves much more Miserable than we Are for want of taking a True Estimate of Things We fly into Transports without Reason and Judge of the Happiness or Calamity of Humane Life by False Lights A Strict Enquiry into the Truth of Matters will Help us in the One and Comparison will set us Right in the Other The Dogs and the Eagles Frighted the Hares The Hares Frighted the Frogs and the Frogs Twenty to One Frighted something else This is according to the Course of the World One Fears Another and some body else is affraid of Him It may seem to be a kind of a Malicious Satisfaction that One Man 〈◊〉 from the Misfortunes of Another But the Philosophy of This Reflexion stands upon Another Ground for Our Comfort does not Arise from Other peoples being Miserable but from This Inference upon the Ballance That we suffer only the Lot of Humane Nature And as we are Happy or Miserable compar'd with Others So Other People are Miserable or Happy Compar'd with Us By which Justice of Providence we come to be Convinc'd of the Sin and the Mistake of our Ingratitude What would not a man give to be Eas'd of the Gout or the Stone Or supposing an Incurable Poverty on the One Hand and an Incurable Malady on the Other Why should not the Poor Man think himself Happier in his Rags than the Other in his Purple But the Rich Man Envies the Poor mans Health without considering his Want and the Poor Man Envies the Others Treasure without considering his Diseases What 's an Ill Name in the World to a Good Conscience within Ones self And how much less Miserable upon the Wheel is One man that is Innocent than Another under the Same Torture that 's Guilty The Only Way for Hares and Asses is to be Thankful for what they Are and what they Have and not to Grumble at the Lot that they must bear in spite of their Teeth FAB XXVIII A Wolf Kid and Goat A Goat that was going out one Morning for a Mouthful of Fresh Grass Charg'd her Kid upon her Blessing not to Open the Door till she came back to any Creature that had not a Beard The Goat was no sooner out of sight but up comes a Wolf to the Door that had Over-heard the Charge and in a Small Pipe calls to the Kid to let her Mother come in The Kid smelt out the Roguery and bad the Wolf shew his Beard and the Door should be Open to him The MORAL There never was any Hypocrite so Disguis'd but he had some Mark or Other yet to be known by REFLEXION HERE is Prudence Caution and Obedience recommended to us in the Kids refusal to Open the Door and here is likewise set forth in the Wolf the Practice of a Fraudulent and a Bloody Impostor This Moral runs through the Whole Business of Humane Life for so much as the Plot is carry'd on against the Simple and the Innocent under False Colours and Feigned Pretences There are Wolves in Policy as well as in Mythology and if the Kids Obedience had not been more than her Sagacity she would have found to her Cost the Teeth of a Wolf in the mouth of a Goat and the malice of an Enemy cover'd under the Voice and Pretence of a Parent FAB XXIX A Dog a Sheep and a Wolf A Dog brought an Action of the Case against a Sheep for some Certain Measures of Wheat that he had lent him The Plaintiff prov'd the Debt by Three Positive Witnesses The Wolf the Kite and the Vultur Testes Probi Legales The Defendent was cast into Costs and Damages and forc'd to sell the Wool off his Back to Satisfie the Creditor The MORAL ' T is not a Straw matter whether the Main Cause be Right or Wrong or the Charge True or False Where the Bench Iury and Witnesses are in a Conspiracy against the Pris'ner REFLEXION NO Innocence can be Safe where Power and Malice are in Confederacy against it There 's No Fence against Subornation and False Evidence What Greater Judgment can befall a Nation than for Sheep to be made Trespassers and Wolves Kites and Vulturs to set up for Witnesses This is a Large Field if a body would Amplifie upon it But the History of of the Age in Memory will be the Best Moral of This Fable There 's No Living however without Law and there 's No Help for 't in many Cases if the Saving Equity be Over-rul'd by the Killing Letter of it 'T is the Verdict that does the Business but 't is the Evidence True or False that Governs the Verdict So that as it sometimes falls out the Honour of the Publick may come to be Concern'd in the Defence and Support of an Undetected Perjury The only Danger is the giving too much Credit to the Oaths of Kites and Vulturs That is to say of Witnesses so Profligate as to bring a Scandal even upon Truth it self where it is so Asserted FAB XXX A Countryman and a Snake THere was a Snake that Bedded himself under the Threshold of a Country-House A Child
All my Enemies The Words were hardly out of his Mouth but he Discover'd a Pack of Dogs coming full-Cry towards him Away he Scours cross the Fields Casts off the Dogs and Gains a Wood but Pressing thorough a Thicket the Bushes held him by the Horns till the Hounds came in and Pluck'd him Down The Last Thing he said was This. What an Unhappy Fool was I to Take my Friends for my Enemies and my Enemies for my Friends I Trusted to my Head that has Betray'd me and I found fault with my Leggs that would otherwise have brought me off The MORAL He that does not thoroughly know himself may be Well Allowed to make a False Iudgment upon other Matters that most Nearly concern him REFLEXION THIS is to shew us how perversly we Judge of Many Things and take the Worse for the Better and the Better for the Worse upon a very great Mistake both in what we Despise and in what we Admire But we are rather for That which is Fair and Plausible in Appearance then for That which is Plain and Profitable in Effect Even to the Degree of Preferring Things Temporal to Eternal He that would Know Himself must look into Himself 'T is only the Resemblance or the Shadow that he sees in the Glass Not the Man 'T is One Thing to fancy Greatness of Mind Another Thing to Practise it for a Body may Promise nay and resolve upon Many Things in Contemplation that he can never make good upon Tryal How did the Stag despise the Dogs here at the sight of his Armed Head in the Fountain but his Heart went quite to another Tune when the Hounds were at the Heels of him We are likewise taught here how subject Vain Men are to Glory in That which commonly Tends to their Loss their Misfortune their Shame and their very Destruction and yet at the same time to take their Best Friends for their Enemies But there 's a Huge Difference betwixt a False Conception of Things and the True Nature and Reason of them The Stag Prided himself in his Horns that afterward Shackled and were the Ruine of him but made slight of his Pityful Shanks that if it had not been for his Branching Head would have brought him off FAB XLIV A Snake and a File THere was a Snake got into a Smith's Shop and fell to Licking of a File She Saw the File Bloudy and still the Bloudyer it was the more Eagerly she Lick'd it upon a Foolish Fancy that it was the File that Bled and that She her self had the Better on 't In the Conclusion when she could Lick no Longer she fell to Biting but finding at last that she could do no more Good upon 't with her Teeth then with her Tongue she Fairly left it The MORAL 'T is a Madness to stand Biting and Snapping at any thing to no manner of purpose more then the Gratifying of an Impotent Rage in the fancy of Hurting Another when in truth we only Wound our selves REFLEXION THIS Fable sets out the Malignity of some Spiteful People that take so much Pleasure in the Design of Hurting others as not to Feel and Understand that they only Hurt themselves This is the Case of Those that will be Trying Masteries with their Superiors and Biting of That which is too Hard for their Teeth There 's no Contending with an Adversary that 's either Insensible or Invincible And the Rule holds in Matters not only of Actual Force and Violence but of Fortune and Good Name for 't is no better then Downright Madness to strike where we have No Power to Hurt and to Contend where we are sure to be Worsted The Doctrine is this That Every Man should Consider his Own Strength and Act accordingly FAB XLV A League betwixt the Wolves and the Sheep THere was a Time when the Sheep were so Hardy as to Wage War with the Wolves and so long as they had the Dogs for their Allies they were upon all Encounters at least a Match for their Enemies Upon This Consideration the Wolves sent their Embassadors to the Sheep to Treat about a Peace and in the Mean Time there were Hostages given on Both Sides the Dogs on the part of the Sheep and the Wolves Whelps on the Other Part 'till Matters might be brought to an Issue While they were upon Treaty the Whelps fell a Howling The Wolves cryed out Treason and pretending an Infraction in the Abuse of their Hostages fell upon the Sheep immediately without their Dogs and made them pay for the Improvidence of leaving themselves without a Guard The MORAL 'T is senseless to the Highest Degree to think of Establishing an Alliance among those that Nature her self has Divided by an Inconciliable Disagreement Beside that a Foolish Peace is much more Destructive than a Bloody War REFLEXION To take This Fable in a Political Sense a Peace that puts People out of Condition of Defence in case of a War must expect a War and such a State as leaves them at the Mercy of an Enemy is Worse then War it self There 's no Trusting to the Articles and Formalities of an Out-side Peace upon the pretended Reconciliation of an Implacable Enemy Christian Religion bids us Forgive But Christian Prudence bids us have a Care too whom we Trust. 'T is just in the World as it is in the Apologue Truces and Cessations are both Made and Broken for Present Convenience and where the Allies find they may be the Better for 't we may lay down this for an undoubted Truth that there can never want a Colour for a Rupture where there 's a Good Will to 't 'T is No New Thing ing in the World for the Dogs that are to keep the Wolves from Worrying the Sheep to be deliver'd up to the Enemy for Hostages for fear the Sheep should Worry the Wolves This was our very Case within the Memory of Man when Matters were brought to the same Issue in the Kingdom by 't that they are here in the Fable Witness the several and several Treaties and Proposals that were set a foot under the Countenance of a Good Will to Peace Where only such Conditions were insisted upon by the Designing Party as would be almost Equally Destructive to all Honest Men whether they were Granted or Refused The One Way the Wolves were to have the Sheep left at Mercy and the Other Way the Scandal was turn'd upon the Refusers as the Enemies of an Accommodation Nay and the very Dogs were turn'd into Wolves too while Lawyers and Divines made the Law and the Gospel Felons of themselves and suborn'd the Scriptures against the very Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles FAB XLVI An Axe and a Forrest A Carpenter that had got the Iron-Work of an Axe allready went to the Next Forrest to beg only so much Wood as would make a Handle to 't The Matter seem'd so small that the Request was Easily Granted but when the Timber-Trees came to find that the Whole Wood
under the Straw and so made Prize of 〈◊〉 The MORAL to the Two Fables above He that would be sure to have his Bus'ness Well Done must either Do it Himself or see the Doing of it Beside that many a Good Servant is Spoil'd by a Careless Master REFLEXION INTEREST Does more in the World then Faith and Honesty for Men are more sensible in their own Case then in Anothers which is all but according to the Old Saying Command your Man and Do 't Your Self Neither in Truth is it Reasonable that Another should be more Careful of Me than I am of my â—…elf Every Man's Bus'ness is Best Done when he looks after it with his Own Eyes And in short when Every Man looks to One the Care is taken for All. We are likewise given to understand in the Misfortune and Mistake of the Stag how Rare a Felicity it is for a Man in Distress to find out such a Patron as has the Will and the Resolution the Skill and the Power to Relieve him and that it is not Every Man's Talent neither to make the Best of a Bad Game The Morality of this Caution is as good a Lesson to Governments as to Private Families For a Prince's Leaving his Bus'ness Wholly to his Ministers without a Strict Eye over them in their Respective Offices and Functions is as Dangerous an Errour in Politiques as a Masters Committing All to his Servant is in Oeconomicks It is Effectually a Translation of the Authority when a Superior trusts himself Implicitly to the Faith Care Honesty and Discretion of an Inferior To say nothing of the Temptation to Bribery and False Dâ—…aling when so much may be Gotten by 't with so Little Hazzard either of Discovery or Punishment Beside the Desperate Inconvenience of Setting up a Wrong Interest by drawing Applications out of the Proper Channel and Committing the Authority and Duty of the Master to the Honesty and Discretion of the Servant Men will be True to Themselves how Faithless soever to One Another FAB LIV. A Fox and a Sick Lyon A Certain Lyon that had got a Politique Fit of Sickness made it his Observation that of All the Beasts in the Forrest the Fox never came at him And so he wrote him Word how Ill he was and how Mighty Glad he should be of his Company upon the Score of Ancient Friendship and Acquaintance The Fox return'd the Complement with a Thousand Prayers for his Recovery but as for Waiting upon him he desir'd to be Excus'd For says he I find the Traces of abundance of Feet Going In to Your Majesties Palace and not One that comes Back again The MORAL The Kindnesses of Ill Natur'd and Designing People should be thoroughly Consider'd and Examin'd before we give Credit to them REFLEXION There 's but a Hair's Breadth here betwixt an Office of Great Piety Humanity and Virtue and an Action of Extreme Folly Improvidence and Hazzard But the Fox saw thorough the Complement and that it was in Truth but an Invitation of him to his Own Funeral We meet with many of These Dangerous Civilities in the World wherein 't is a Hard Matter for a Man to Save both his Skin and his Credit 'T is a Difficult Point to Hit the True Medium betwixt Trusting too Much and too Little for fear of Incurring a Danger on the One Hand or giving a Scandal on the Other Complements are only Words of Course and though One External Civility may be Current Payment for Another yet a Man would be loth to Venture his All upon a Figure of Speech where the Meaning is so Nicely Divided betwixt Jest and Earnest 'T is a Base Thing to suspect a Friend or an Honest Man Nay 't is a Base Thing to suspect any Man that but Looks like One so as to Wound him That is either in a Word or in a Thought But then 't is Death perhaps to be Impos'd upon by an Hypocrite under That Masque So that the Character of a Wise Man lyes at Stake upon Matter of Judgment One Way and of a Good Natur'd Man the Other Way The Middle Course is to Hide our Distrust where we are Doubtful and to be Free and Open where we may be Secure There 's No Living without Trusting some body or Other in some Cases or at some Time or Other But then if People be not Cautious Whom When and Wherein the Mistake may be Mortal for there must be somewhat of a Trust to make way for a Treachery since No man can be Betray'd that does not either Believe or seem to Believe So that the Fox did well to Weigh All Circumstances before he came to a Resolution The Lion's Design was well enough Cover'd under the Disguise of a Counterfeit Sickness and a Dissembled Tenderness and Respect for the Drawing of the Fox into the Toyle For there was the Civility of an Invitation on the One hand and some Colour of a Right to a Visit though but out of Compassion and Good Manners on the Other But the Foxes Sagacity and the Prints of the Feet Spoil'd All. This Fable in One Word more bids us be Careful how we Trust in Any Case without looking Well about us for 't is Half the Bus'ness of One part of the World to put Tricks upon T'other The Heart of Man is like a Bog it looks Fair to the Eye but when we come to lay any Weight upon 't the Ground is False under us Nothing could be more Obliging and Respectful then the Lyon's Letter was in Terms and Appearance but there was Death yet in the True Intent and Meaning on 't FAB LV. A Fox and a Weazel A Slam Thin-Gutted Fox made a Hard Shift to Wriggle his Body into a Hen-Roost and when he had stuff'd his Guts well he squeez'd hard to get out again but the Hole was too Little for him There was a Weazle a pretty way off that stood Learing at him all This While Brother Reynard says he Your Belly was Empty when you went In and you must e'en stay till Your Belly be Empty again before you come Out The MORAL Temperance keeps the Whole Man in Order and in a Good Disposition either for Thought or Action but the Indulging of the Appetite brings a Clog both upon the Body and Mind REFLEXION IN a Middle State both of Body and of Fortune a man is better Dispos'd for the Offices of Humane Society and the Functions of Reasonable Nature and the Heart is also Freer from Cares and Troubles There are Unwieldy Minds as well as Unwieldy Bodies and the Fumes of the One Obstruct the Operations of the Other The Head of a Philosopher will never do well upon the Shoulders of an Epicure The Body and the Soul are Inseparable Companions and it is against the Nature of This Reasonable Union for the One to be a Clog to the Other The Foxe's here is the Case of Many a Publick Minister that comes Empty In but when he has Cram'd his Gutts well
Your Hand a little says the Man unless y 'ave a mind to Draw All the Dogs in the Town upon me For That will Certainly be the End on 't when they shall find themselves Rewarded instead of Punish'd The MORAL Good Nature is a Great Misfortune where it is not Manag'd with Prudence Christian Charity 't is true bids us return Good for Evil but it does not Oblige us yet to Reward where we should Punish REFLEXION THIS is to Enform us that Wicked and Ill-Natur'd Men are not to be Oblig'd by Kindnesses Especially when they find they may be the better for Insolence for at That Rate he that Rewards Past Affronts Draws On and Encourages New Ones There are Churlish Currs in the Moral as well as in the Fable and we are here taught how to Behave our selves upon the Biting of All Manner of Dogs Under the Rule and Correction of This Allegory we may reckon Calumny Slander and Detraction in any Form or Figure whatsoever and all Manner of Affronts and Indignities upon our Good Names or our Persons There may be Place in All These Cases for a Generous Charity to Forgive Offences even of the Highest Ingratitude and Malice But it is not Advisable to Reward where Men have the Tenderness not to Punish This way of Proceeding is Dangerous in All the Affairs Publique as well as Private of Humane Life for 't is a Temptation to Villany when People when a Man fares the Better for Evil Doing Ill Nature in fine is not to be Cur'd with a Sop but on the contrary Quarrelsome Men as well as Quarrelsome Currs are worse for fair Usage FAB LXXXIX A Hunted Bever THE Bever is a kind of an Amphibious Creature but he lives Mostly in the Water His Stones they say are Med'cinal and it is principally for Their Sake he knows that People seek his Life and therefore when he finds himself Hard Pinch'd he Bites 'em off and by leaving Them to his Pursuers he Saves Himself The MORAL When a greater Interest is at Stake 't is a Warrantable Point of Honour and Discretion to compound the Hazzard by parting with the Less provided that while we Quit the One we may save the Other REFLEXION WE find This Doctrine and Practice to be Verify'd in State-Chaces as as well as in Those of the Woods That is to say where it is made a Crime to be Rich and where Men are forc'd to lay Violent Hands on Themselves to be Safe and Quiet and with the Bever here to compound with their Nutmegs to save their Lives FAB XC A Thunny and a Dolphin A Thunny gave Chace to a Dolphin and when he was just ready to seize him the Thunny struck before he was aware and the Dolphin in the Eagerness of his Pursuit ran himself a ground with him They were Both Lost but the Thunny kept his Eye still upon the Dolphin and Observing him when he was Just at Last Gasp Well says he the Thought of Death is now Easy to me so long as I see my Enemy go for Company FAB XCI Two Enemies at Sea THere were Two Enemies at Sea in the same Vessel the One at the Ships Head the Other at the Stern It Blew a Dreadful Storm and when the Vessel was just ready to be swallow'd up One of 'em Ask'd the Master which Part of the ship would be First under Water so he told him the T'other End would Sink first Why then says he I shall have the Comfort of seeing my Enemy go before me The MORAL of the TWO FABLES above 'T is a Wretched Satisfaction that a Revengeful Man takes even in the Losing of his Own Life provided that his Enemy may go for Company REFLEXION THERE is some Comfort in Company even in a State of Adversity Society is so Necessary and Agreeable to Mankind in All Cases that Death is Certainly the More Uneasy for a Man's going alone into Another World But the Consolation Pointed at in This Fable is That which an Envious Man takes in the Ruine of his Enemy There is a Memorable Instance to This Purpose of a Gentleman that had an Estate for Lives and Two of his Tenants in the Lease One of them dyes and the Other desires his Landlord to lay Both Farms into One and Accept of Him for his Tenant The Gentleman fairly Excus'd Himself and away goes the Man in a Rage to his Wife Told her how it was and Swore a Great Oath that he would be Reveng'd of his Landlord This was in Harvest Time and he went out next day to his Reapers but stay'd so long that his Wife sent up and down to look after him To shorten the Story they found him at last in a Ditch Vomiting his Heart out The Man it seems had Poyson'd himself and the Revenge upon his Landlord was the Defeating him of his Estate by Destroying the Last Life in his Lease In One Word Revenge stops at Nothing that 's Violent and Wicked It Divides the Dearest Friends Embroils Governments and Tears Families to pieces But to say no more on 't The Histories of All Ages are full of the Tragical Outrages that have been Executed by this Diabolical Passion beside that it hardens People into a Brutall Contempt of Death as in the Fables above where they may but see their Enemies fall for Company FAB XCII A Fortune-Teller THere was a kind of a Petty Conjurer that made it his Profession to Resolve Questions and tell Fortunes and he held forth in the Market-Place Word was brought him in the very Middle of his Schemes and Calculations that his House was Robb'd and so away he scours immediately to learn the Truth on 't As he was running home in All Haste a Droll takes him up by the Way with this short Question Friend says he How come You to be so Good at telling Other Peoples Fortunes and Know so little of your Own FAB XCIII A Cunning Woman A Certain Dame that pass'd in the World under the Name of a Cunning Woman took upon her to Avert Divine Judgments and to Foretell Strange Things to come She play'd the Counterfeit Witch so long till in the Conclusion she was Taken up Arraign'd Try'd Convicted Condemned to Dye and at last Executed for a Witch indeed D' ye hear Good Woman says one to her as she was upon the Way to her Execution Are the Gods so much Easyer then the Judges that you should be Able to make Them do any Thing for ye and yet could not Prevail with the Bench for the Saving of your Own Life FAB XCIV An Astrologer and a Traveller A Certain Starr-Gazer had the Fortune in the very Height of his Celestial Observations to stumble into a Ditch A sober Fellow passing by gave him a piece of Wholesome Counsel Friend says he Make a Right Use of Your Present Misfortune and pray for the Future let the Starrs go on quietly in their Courses and do you look a little Better to the Ditches The MORAL of the
Death and an Old Man AN Old Man that had Travell'd a Great Way under a Huge Burden of Sticks found himself so Weary that he Cast it Down and call'd upon Death to Deliver him from a more Miserable Life Death came presently at his Call and Asked him his Bus'ness Pray Good Sir says he Do me but the favour to Help me up with my Burden again The MORAL Men call upon Death as they Do upon the Devil When he comes they 're affraid of him REFLEXION 'T IS Matter of Custom and in Passion rather then in Earnest that Men in Pain and Misery are so ready to call for Death For when he comes they are affraid of him It may be said to be the Motto of Humane Nature rather to Suffer then to Dye though 't is Good however to be always ready for That which Must come at Last The Doctrine is This That Skin and All that a man has will he give for his Life We are apt to Pick Quarrels with the World for Every Little Foolery Oh that I were e'en in in my Grave cryes my Lady My Pretty Pearl is Dead Never did any thing go so near my Heart I Praise the Lord for 't Pray Madam Bethink your self says a Good Woman to her upon a Condoling Visit. Why you have Out-liv'd the Loss of a most Excellent Husband Ay Madam says the sorrowful Widow But the Lord may send me such Another Husband I shall never have such Another Dog Every Trivial Cross makes us think we are Weary of the World but our Tongues run quite to Another Tune when we come once to parting with it in Earnest Then 't is Call the Doctor Pothecary Surgeon Purge Flux Launce Burn Saw I 'le Endure Any thing in This World if you can but keep Life and Soul together When it comes to That once 't is not Help me Off with my Burden but Help me Up with it FAB CXIV A Doctor and Patient with Sore Eyes A Physician Undertakes a Woman with Sore Eyes upon the the Terms of No Cure No Mony His Way was to Dawb 'em quite up with Oyntments and while she was in That Pickle to carry of a Spoon or a Porringer or somewhat or Other at the End of his Visit. The Womans Eyes Mended and still as she came More and More to her self again there was Every Day less and less left in the House to be seen The Doctor came to her at last and told her Mistress says he I have Discharg'd my 〈◊〉 Your Eyes are Perfectly Well again and pray let me be Payd now according to Our Agreement Alas Sir says she I 'm a Great deal Worse then I was the First Minute you Undertook me for I could see Plate Hangings Paintings and Other Goods of Value about my House 'till You had the Ordering of me but I am now brought to such a Pass that I can see nothing at all The MORAL There are Few Good Offices done for Other People which the Benefactor does not hope to be the Better for Himself REFLEXION THIS Fancy is Half Knavery Half Humour and the Doctors Part in 't is no more then according to the Common Practice of the World in Law as well as in Physick when People make the Remedy Worse then the Disease as when a Man spends the Fee Simple of an Estate in a Contest for the Title The Barber that Pick'd a Gentlemans Pocket while he was Washing of his Face Wrote after This Copy The Moral holds forth This Matter of Advice to us not to Contract any Obligations Rashly for Good Offices in course are rather Baits and Snares then Benefits and there are some Certain People that a Sober Man would not Venture the being Beholden to The Poor Woman here had her Jest for her Houshold-Stuff and the Vain Satisfaction of Paying her Physician with a Conceit for his Mony It Minds me of the Orator that was to Teach a Young Man Rhetorick on Condition of Double Pay upon the Perfecting of him in his Profession and not a Penny before The Master follow'd his Scholar Close and came to him at last for his Mony according to the Bargain The Young Fellow begg'd him over and over to Forbear it a while but could not Prevail He told him Then that there was nothing Due to him for if Rhetorick be as you say the Art or Power of Persuasion and if I cannot prevail with you to forbear Your Mony I am not Master of my Trade yet This was the Woman's Way of Reasoning with the Physician The Dr. would have his Mony for the Curing of her Eyes and the Woman shuffl'd it off that she was not Cur'd for she could see Nothing at all which was One Fallacy upon Another FAB CXV A Cat and Mice THere was a House Mightily troubled with Mice and a Notable Cat there was that Time after Time had Pick'd up so Many of 'em that they agreed among themselves to keep above in the Cieling for they found that upon the Plain Floor there was No Living for ' em This Spoil'd Pusses Sport unless she could find a way to Trepan them Down again So she Leapt up to a Pin that was driven into the Wall and there Hung like a Polcat in a Warren to Amuse them The Mice took Notice of it and One Wiser then the rest Stretched out his Neck to learn the Truth of the Matter and so soon as ever he found how ' t was Ah says he You may Hang there 'till Your Heart Akes for if you were but a Dish-Clout as you are a Counterfeiting-Devil of a Cat here 's not a Creature will come Near ye The MORAL Let no man lay himself at the Mercy of a known Enemy under any Shew or Pretence Whatsoever for he forfeits his Discretion even though he should happen to Save his Carcass and his Fortune REFLEXION WHAT we cannot Compass by Force must be Attempted by Invention and Address but then on the Other hand in All Cases of Hazzard Things would be well Weigh'd and Examin'd before we Trust. This Fable is the Fiction of a Case not Altogether Incredible 'T is a Common Thing for an Old Jade to Counterfeit Lame for fear of Hard Riding for a Duck to run Flapping and Fluttering away as if she were Maim'd to carry People from her Young as there 's a Story of a Fox that was Hard Hunted and Hung himself up by the Teeth in a Warren among the Vermin to put the Dogs to a Loss Without any more Words Twenty Instances might be given to shew how near That which we call Impulse or Instinct comes to Reason For the Cats Policy was no Other in truth then That we call Sleeping Dog-Sleep And there was the very same Fore-thought and Design in 't too which in a Construction of Law and Equity passes for Malice Prepense FAB CXVI An Ape and a Fox UPon the Decease of a Lyon of Late Famous Memory the Beasts Met in Councel to Chuse a King There were
the same Steps and Degrees with This Inimitable Example It Deliberates Projects Executes Weighes and Approves Nature does Nothing in a Huddle and Human Prudence should Govern it self by the same Measures A Plurality of Voices 't is true carryes the Question in all our Debates but rather as an Expedient for Peace then an Eviction of the Right for there are Millions of Errors to One Reason and Truth And a Point is not so Easy to be Hit In a Word the Old Saying is a shrewd One that Wise Men Propose and Fools Determine Take the World to pieces and there are a thousand Sots to one Philosopher and as many Swarms of Flyes to One Eagle Lions do not come into the World by Litters FAB CXXIII Two Cocks Fighting TWO Cocks fought a Duell for the Mastery of a Dunghill He that was Worsted slunk away into a Corner and Hid himself T'other takes his Flight up to the Top of the House and there with Crowing and Clapping of his Wings makes Proclamation of his Victory An Eagle made a Stoop at him in the Middle of his Exultation and carry'd him away By This Accident the Other Cock had a Good Riddance of his Rival took Possession of the Province they Contended for and had All his Mistresses to Himself again The MORAL A Wise and a Generous Enemy will make a Modest Use of a Victory for Fortune is Variable REFLEXION THIS Combat of Two Cocks for a Dunghill may be Moraliz'd by an Application of it to the Competition of the Greatest Princes for Empire and Dominion For what 's the World more then a Mass of Dirt on the One hand as to the Subject of the Quarrell and there 's the same Thirst of Blood too betwixt the Combatants on the Other We have again the Various Chance of Warr Exhibited on Both Sides For 't is with Kings as with These Cocks He that 's a Victor This Moment may be a Slave the Next And this Volubility of Human Affaires what is it but either the Sport or the Judgment of Providence in the Punishment of Arrogance and Oppression We are given finally to Understand that as the Levity of Fortune leaves us Nothing to Trust to or to Presume upon so at the same Time there 's Nothing to Despair of The Conquering Cock was Cut off in the very Song of his Triumph and the Conquer'd re-instated in the Possession of his former Pretenses FAB CXXIV A Fawn and a Stag. A Fawn was Reasoning the Matter with a Stag why he should run away from the Dogs still for says he you are Bigger and Stronger then They. If you have a Mind to stand y' are better Arm'd And then y' are Fleeter if you 'll Run for 't I can't Imagine what should make you so Fearful of a Company of Pityful Currs Nay says the Stag 't is All True that you say and 't is no more then I say to my self Many Times and yet whatever the Matter is let me take up what Resolutions I please when I hear the Hounds once I cannot but betake my self to my Heels The MORAL 'T is One thing to Know what we ought to do and Another thing to Execute it and to bring up our Practice to our Philosophy He that is naturally a Coward is not to be made Valiant by Councell REFLEXION NATURAL Infirmities are well nigh Insuperable and Men that are Cowards by Complexion are hardly ever to be made Valiant by Discourse But They are Conscious yet of the Scandal of that Weakness and may make a shift perhaps to Reason themselves now and then into a kind of Temporary Resolution which they have not the Power afterwards to go Thorough with We find it to be much the same Case in the Government of our Affections and Appetites that it is in These Bodyly Frailties of Temperament and Complexion Providence has Arm'd us with Powers and Faculties sufficient for the Confounding of All the Enemies we have to Encounter We have Life and Death before us That is to say Good and Evil And we know which is which too Beside that it is at our Choice to Take or to Refuse So that we understand what we ought to do but when we come to Deliberate we play Booty against our selves And while our Judgments and our Consciences direct us One Way our Corruptions Hurry us Another This Stag in fine is a Thorough Emblem of the State and Infirmity of Mankind We are both of us Arm'd and Provided either for the Combat or for Flight We see the Danger we Ponder upon it and now and then by Fits take up some Faint Resolutions to Outbrave and break thorough it But in the Conclusion we shrink upon the Tryal We betake our selves from our Heads to our Heels from Reason to Flesh and Bloud from our Strength to our Weaknesses and suffer under One Common Fate FAB CXXV Iupiter and a Bee A Bee made Iupiter a Present of a Pot of Hony which was so kindly Taken that he bad her Ask what she would and it should be Granted her The Bee desir'd that where-ever she should set her Sting it might be Mortal Iupiter was loth to leave Mankind at the Mercy of a Little Spiteful Insect and so bad her have a care how she Kill'd any Body for what Person soever she Attacqu'd if she left her Sting behind her it should cost her her Life The MORAL Spiteful Prayers are no better than Curses in a Disguise and the Granting of them turns commonly to the Mischief of the Petitioner REFLEXION CRUELTY and Revenge are directly contrary to the very Nature of the Divine Goodness and the Mischief that is Design'd for Other People returns commonly upon the Head of the Author How many Men are there in the World that put up as Malicious Prayers in Christian Assemblyes to the True God as the Bee does to Iupiter here in the Fable And Prayers too against their very Patrons and Masters their Benefactors that Entertain Feed and Protect them Will Heaven Heare These Prayers shall we think or Curses rather and not Punish them This Bee did not Pray for a Power to Kill without a Previous Disposition and Design to put that Venemous Power in Execution She had Mischief in her Heart allready and only wanted some Destructive Faculty answerable to her Will And so pray'd to Iupiter as Men do in many Cases to the Iehovah for the Blessing of an Ability to Commit Murder FAB CXXVI Wasps in a Honey-Pot THere was a Whole Swarm of Wasps got into a Hony-Pot and there they Cloy'd and Clamm'd themselves till there was no getting Out again which brought them to Understand in the Conclusion that they had pay'd too Deare for their Sweet-Meats The MORAL Loose Pleasures become Necessary to Us by the Frequent Use of them and when they come once to be Habitual there 's no getting Clear again REFLEXION THESE Wasps in a Hony-Pot are so many Sensual Men that are Plung'd in their Lusts and Pleasures and when
Thing was Acceptable enough but not the Presenter for says Iupiter though Gifts are Wellcome to me of Themselves I must not yet receive any from a Serpent The MORAL He that receives a Present Contracts an Obligation which a Body would be Asham'd of in the Case of an Ill Man for it looks toward making a Friendship with him REFLEXION A Good Man would not Willingly lye under any Obligation to a Person of a Lewd Character and Conversation for beside the Danger he Incurrs it would not be for his Credit neither where Presents are Scandals and rather Snares then Benefits 'T is a kind of Incumbrance upon the freedom of a Generous Mind to be debt to an Ill Man even upon any Score whatsoever that does but carry the face of Good Will or Respect for 't is a Debt that a Man 's both Asham'd and Weary of 'till 't is paid off He lives uneasily under the Burden of it and Consequently it is the Debt of All Others that ought first to be Answer'd And there 's Somthing more in 't yet too which is that when All Common Scores are made even the Morality of the Obligation still remains for there 's no Cancelling the Bonds of Honor and Justice Kindnesses are to be paid in specie as well as Mony That is to say there must be Affection in the Return as well as Justice Now as there can be No True Friendship betwixt a Good Man and a Wicked Man there should be no Intercourse betwixt them that looks like Friendship and therefore the Less Commerce the Better As Iupiter we see would have Nothing to do with the Serpent FAB CXXXIX A Flea and a Man A Fellow finding somewhat Prick him Popt his Finger upon the Place and it prov'd to be a Flea What art thou says he for an Animal to Suck thy Livelyhood out of My Carcass Why 't is the Livelyhood says the Flea that Nature has Allotted me and My Stinging is not Mortal neither Well says the Man but 't is Troublesome however and now I Have ye I ll secure ye for ever Hurting me again either Little or Much. The MORAL Live and Let Live is the Rule of Common Iustice but if People will be Troublesome on the One hand the Obligation is Discharg'd on the other REFLEXION IT is as Natural for a Man to Kill a Flea as it is for a Flea to Bite a Man There 's a kind of self-Preservation on Both sides and without Any Malice on Either Hand The Flea cannot Live without Nourishment nor the Man without Rest. So that here 's only a Present Dispatch on the One Hand to prevent a Lingring Death on the Other as a Restless Life is in Truth no Better There are in the World as many Illustrations of This Fable as there are Instances of Petulant Pragmatical and Impertinent People that Break in upon Men of Government and Bus'ness Distractions have much in them of Flea-Bitings That is to say 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 We Neglect God in Greater Matters and Petition him for Trifles nay and Take Pett at last if we cannot have our Askings REFLEXION 'T is 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 Sollicitous 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 a Hair to make it all of a Colour The Matronly Wife she Pluck'd out All the Brown Hairs and the Younger the White So that they left the Man in the Conclusion no better then a Bald Buzzard betwixt them The MORAL 'T is a much Harder Thing to Please Two Wives then Two Masters and He 's a Bold Man that offers at it REFLEXION MARRIAGES are Govern'd rather by an Over-ruling Fatality then by any Solemnity of Choice and Judgment though 't is a Hard Matter to find out a Woman even at the Best that 's of a Just Scantling for her Age Person Humour and Fortune to make a Wife of This Fable presents us with One single Disparity that is of it self Sufficient without a more then Ordinary Measure of Virtue and Prudence to make a Man Miserable and Ridiculous I speak of a Disparity of Years which in the Moral takes-in all Other Disproportions The One's too Young T'other too Old to shew us that Marriage is out of Season if it does not Hit the very Critical Point betwixt them 'T is much with Wedlock as it is with our Sovereign Cordials and Antidotes There go a Thousand Ingredients to the making of the Composition But then if they be not Tim'd Proportion'd and Prepar'd according to Art 't is a Clog to us rather then a Relief So that it would have been Well if Nature had Prescrib'd the Dos of Womans-Flesh as she has Determin'd the Necessity of it FAB CXLII Two Frogs that wanted Water UPon the Drying up of a Lake Two Frogs were forc'd to Quit and to seek for Water Elsewhere As they were upon the Search they Discover'd a very Deep Well Come says One to T'other Let us e'en go down here without Looking any further You say well says her Companion but what if the Water should fail us Here
an ill Favour'd Face That is to say the One Drowns the Harshness of the Pipe as the Other Covers or Disguises the Coursness of the Complexion But Men must not think to Walk upon These Stilts if they come to set up in Publick once The One for an Italian Capon the Other for an English Beauty Wherefore it will become All People to Weigh and Measure Themselves before they Venture upon any Undertaking that may bring their Lives Honour or Fortune in Question Some Songsters can no more Sing in any Chamber but their Own then some Clarks can Read in any Book but their Own Put them out of their Road once and they are Meer Cat-Pipes and Dunces FAB CLXXVII Thieves that Stole a Cock. A Band of Thieves Brake into a House once and found Nothing in 't to Carry away but One Poor Cock The Cock said as much for Himself as a Cock could say but Insisted Chiefly upon the Services of his Calling People up to their Work when 't was time to Rise Sirrah says one of the Thieves You had Better have let That Argument Alone for Your Waking the Family Spoils our Trade and We are to be Hang'd forsooth for your Bawling The MORAL That which is One Body's Meat is Another Body's Poyson as the Trussing up of Thieves is the Security of Honest Men. One Foolish Word is Enough to Spoil a Good Cause and 't is many a Man's Fortune to Cut his Own Throat with his Own Argument REFLEXION 'T IS a Hard Matter for a Man that Argues against the Truth and the Reason of a Thing to Consist with Himself for having no Rule to Walk by 't is Forty to One but Some time or Other he will lose his Way Especially when he is to Accommodate his Story to the Various Circumstances of Times Persons and Occasions But it is One Thing to forget Matter of Fact and Another Thing to blunder upon the Reason of it It is however well Worthy of a Sober Man's Care not to let any thing fall that may be turn'd upon him out of his Own Mouth This Presence of Mind 't is true is not Every bodies Talent neither does This Consideration Enter into Every bodies Thought but it were better if it Were so and so it Ought to be FAB CLXXVIII A Crow and a Raven YOur Raven has a Reputation in the World for a Bird of Omen and a kind of small Prophet A Crow that had Observ'd the Raven's Manner and Way of Delivering his Predictions sets up for a Foreboder too and so gets upon a Tree and there stands Nodding and Croaking just over the Head of some People that were Passing by They were a little Surpriz'd at first but so soon as they saw how ' t was Come my Masters says One of the Company let 's e'en go forward for This is but the Chattering of a Foolish Crow and it signifies Nothing The MORAL How are Superstitious Men Hagg'd Out of their Wits and Senses with the Fancy of Omens Forebodings Old Wives Tales and Visions and upon a Final Examination of the Matter Nothing at all in the Bottom on 't REFLEXION THE Affectation of Powers and Faculties that are Above us is not only Vain and Unprofitable but Ridiculous for the Matter upon Examination will not abide the Test. Your Empyricks Piss-Pot-Prophets Fortune-Tellers and Buffoon-Pretenders to State and Government fall under the Lash of This Moral And so do All your little Smatterers in Arts and Siences of what Kind or Quality soever But there goes more to the Making of a Prophet then Nodding and Croaking 'T is not the Gown and the Cap that Makes the Doctor Neither is it the Supercilious Gravity of Countenances and Forms that presently Dubbs any Man a Philosopher Not but that a Fool may Put himself in the Garb and so far Imitate the Meen and Motions of a Wise-man as at first Blush to Put a Body to a Stand what to Make of him But upon further Consideration the Original is as Easily known from the Copy as the Ass in his borrow'd Skin was from the Lyon Or I might have said as the Crow here from the Raven Their Ears and their Tongues Betray them FAB CLXXIX A Crow and a Dog A Crow Invited a Dog to Joyn in a Sacrifice to Minerva That will be to no Purpose says the Dog for the Goddess has such an A version to ye that you are Particularly Excluded out of all Auguries Ay says the Crow but I 'll Sacrifice the rather to her for That to try if I can make her my Friend The MORAL We find it in the Practice of the World that Men take up Religion more for Fear Reputation and Interest then for True Affection REFLEXION THIS Pagan Fable will bear a Christian Moral for more People Worship for Fear and for Interest then for Love and Devotion As the Indians do the Devils That they may not Hurt ' em It Teaches us farther that we are not to take Pet or Despond under any Cross or Calamity that the Almighty is pleased to lay upon us The Judgments of Heaven are Just and let them fall never so Heavy they are yet less then we deserve The Devil Himself when he was let loose upon Iob could not Transport That Patient Good Man beyond his Temper or make him Quit his Hold. Resignation and Perseverance are All that a Man has to Trust to in This Extremity There 's no Good to be done by Struggling nor any way left us to make our Peace with but to try by Faith Prayer and a New Life if we can make our Offended Master Once again our Friend So that upon the Upshot Afflictions are but the Methods of a Merciful Providence to Force us upon the only Means of setting Matters Right betwixt Divine Justice and Humane Frailty FAB CLXXX A Raven and a Snake AS a Snake lay Lazing at his Length in the Gleam of the Sun a Raven Took him up and Flew away with him The Snake kept a Twisting and Turning till he Bit the Raven and made him Curse himself for being such a Fool as to Meddle with a Purchace that had cost him his Life The MORAL Nature has made All the Necessaries of Life Safe and Easie to us but if we will be Hankering after Things that we Neither Want nor Understand we must take our Fortune even if Death it Self should happen to be in the Case REFLEXION IF Men would but Ballance the Good and the Evil of Things the Profit and the Loss they would not Venture Soul Body and Reputation for a Little Dirty Interest 'T is much the same Thing betwixt Us and our Sensual Acquisitions that it is betwixt the Raven and the Snake here Men of Eager Appetites Chop at what comes next and the Purchase seldom fails of a Sting in the Tayl on 't Nor is it to be Expected that Passion without Reason should Succeed better Our Senses are Sharp-set upon All Fleshly Pleasures and if they be but Fair
given us for the Attaining of Necessary Ends. If we Confound Higher and Lower the World is a Chaos again and a Level Is not a Labourer as much a Tool of Providence as the Master-Builder Are not the Meanest Artisans of the same Institution with Ministers of Counsel and State The Head can no more be without the Body then the Body without the Head and neither of them without Hands and Feet to Defend and Provide both for the One and for the Other Government can no more Subsist without Subjection then the Multitude can Agree without Government And the Duty of Obeying is no less of Divine Appointment then the Authority of Commanding Here 's a Petition to Iupiter in Truth against Himself and in the Moral a Complaint to God against Providence as if the Harmony of Nature and of the World The Order of Men Things and Bus'ness were to be Embroil'd Dissolv'd or Alter'd for the sake of so many Asses What would become of the Universe if there were not Servants as well as Masters Beasts to Draw and Carry Burdens as well as Burdens to be Drawn and Carry'd If there were not Instruments for Drudgery as well as Offices of Drudgery If there were not People to Receive and Execute Orders as well as others to Give and Authorize them The Demand in fine is Unnatural and Consequently both Weak and Wicked And it is likewise as Vain and Unreasonable to Ask a Thing that is wholly Impossible But 't is the Petition of an Ass at last which keeps up the Congruity of the Moral to the Fable The Ground of the Request is the Fiction of a Complaint by reason of Intolerable Burdens Now we have Grievances to the Life as well as in Fancy and Asses in Flesh and Blood too and in Practice as well as in Emblem We have Herds in Society as well as in the Fields and in the Forests And we have English too as well as Arcadian Grievances What Cries the Multitude are not our Bodies of the same Clay and our Souls of the same Divine Inspiration with our Masters Under These Amusements the Common People put up so many Appeals to Heaven from the Powers and Commands of their Lawful Superiors under the Obloquy of Oppressors and what Better Answer can be return'd to All their Clamorous Importunities then This of Iupiter Which most Emphatically sets forth the Necessity of Discharging the Asses Part and the Vanity of Proposing to have it done any Other Way As who should say the Bus'ness of Humane Nature must be done Lay your Heads together and if you can find any way for the doing it without one sort of People under Another You shall have Your Asking But for a Conclusion He that 's born to Work is out of his Place and Element when he is Idle FAB CXCII An Ass and the Frogs AN Ass Sunk down into a Bog among a Shoale of Frogs with a Burden of Wood upon his Back and there he lay Sighing and Groaning as his Heart would Break Hark ye Friend says one of the Frogs to him if you make such a Bus'ness of Lying in a Quagmire when you are but just fall'n into 't what would you do I Wonder if You had been here as long as we have been The MORAL Custom makes things Familiar and Easy to us but every thing is Best yet in it's own Element REFLEXION NATURE has Assign'd Every Creature it 's Proper Place and Station and an Ass in a Bog is out of his Element and out of his Province The Fable it self has not Much in 't but it may serve to Teach us in the Moral that it is a High Point of Honour and Christianity to bear Misfortunes with Resolution and Constancy of Mind And that Steadiness is a Point of Prudence as well as of Courage for People are the Lighter and the Easier for 't But it was an Ass we see that Complain'd and if a Body may play the Fool with him he was but an Ass for Complaining First of what he could not Help and 2ly to be never the Better for 't 'T is with a Man in Goal much at the Rate as it was with this Ass in the Bog He 's Sullen and out of Humour at his first coming In the Pris'ners Gather about him and there He tells 'em his Case Over and Over I warrant ye Some make Sport with him Others Pity him and this is the Trade they drive for the First Four or Five Days perhaps but so soon as the Qualm is over the Man comes to himself again makes merry with his Companions and since he cannot be in his Own House he reckons Himself as good as at Home in the very Prison 'T is the same Thing with a Bird in a Cage when she has Flutter'd her self a Weary she sits down and Sings This 't is to be Wonted to a Things And were it not a Scandal now if Philosophy should not do as much with us as Custom without leaving it to Necessity to do the Office of Vertue It might be added to this Moral that what 's Natural to One may be Grievous to Another The Frogs would have been as much at a Loss in the Stable as the Ass was in the Bog FAB CXCIII A Gall'd Ass and a Raven AS an Ass with a Gall'd Back was Feeding in a Meadow a Raven Pitch'd upon him and there Sate Jobbing of the Sore The Ass fell a Frisking and Braying upon 't which set a Groom that saw it at a Distance a Laughing at it Well! says a Wolfe that was Passing by to see the Injustice of the World now A Poor Wolfe in that Ravens Place would have been Persecuted and Hunted to Death presently and 't is made only a Laughing-Matter for a Raven to do the Same Thing that would have Cost a Wolfe his Life The MORAL One Man may better Steal a Horse then Another Look over the Hedge REFLEXION THE Same Thing in One Person or Respect is not always the Same Thing in Another The Grooms Grinning at the Gambols of the Ass tells us that there are Many Cases that may make People Laugh without Pleasing them as when the Surprize or Caprice of some Fantastical Accident happens to strike the Fancy Nay a Body cannot forbear Laughing Sometimes when he is yet Heartily Sorry for the Thing he Laughs at which is in Truth but an Extravagant Motion that never comes near the Heart Wherefore the Wolfe was Out in his Philosophy when he call'd it a Laughing-Matter Besides that he should have Distinguish'd upon the Disproportion betwixt the Worrying of a Wolfe and the Pecking of a Raven That is to say betwixt a Certain Death on the One Hand and only a Vexatious Importunity on the Other The Raven understood what sort of Spark he had to do withal and the Silly Ass stood Preaching to Himself upon the Text of No Remedy but Patience FAB CXCIV A Lyon Ass and Fox AS an Ass and a Fox were together upon the Ramble
That Kid a Bull if thou 'lt but set me Quit of him again The MORAL We cannot be too Careful and Considerate what Vows and Promises we make for the very Granting of our Prayers turns many times to our Utter Ruine REFLEXION THIS Fable Condemns All Rash Vows and Promises and the Unsteadyness of Those Men that are first mad to have a Thing and as soon Weary of it Men should Consider well before hand what they Promise what they Vow nay and what they Wish for least they should be Taken at their Words and afterward Repent We make it Half our Bus'ness to Learn out Gain and Compass those Things which when we come to Understand and to have in our Possession we 'd give the whole Earth to be Rid of again Wherefore he that Moderates his Desires without laying any Stress upon Things Curious or Uncertain and Resigns himself in All Events to the Good Pleasure of Providence succeeds Best in the Government of his Fortune Life and Manners The Herds-man was in a State of Freedom we see till he made himself a Voluntary Slave by Entering into a Dangerous and Unnecessary Vow which he could neither Contract without Folly nor Keep without Loss and Shame For Heaven is neither to be Wheedled nor Brib'd Men should so Pray as not to Repent of their Prayers and turn the most Christian and Necessary Office of our Lives into a Sin We must not Pray in One Breath to Find a Thief and in the Next to get shut of him FAB CCI. A Gnat Challenges a Lyon AS a Lyon was Blustering in the Forrest up comes a Gnat to his very Beard and Enters into an Expostulation with him upon the Points of Honour and Courage What do I Value your Teeth or your Claws says the Gnat that are but the Arms of Every Bedlam Slut As to the Matter of Resolution I defy ye to put That Point immediately to an Issue So the Trumpet Sounded and the Combatants Enter'd the Lists The Gnat Charg'd into the Nostrils of the Lyon and there Twing'd him till he made him Tear himself with his Own Paws And in the Conclusion he Master'd the Lyon Upon This a Retreat was Sounded and the Gnat flew his way But by Ill-hap afterward in his Flight he struck into a Cobweb where the Victor fell a Prey to a Spider This Disgrace went to the Heart of him after he had got the Better of a Lyon to be Worsted by an Insect The MORAL 'T is in the Power of Fortune to Humble the Pride of the Mighty even by the most Despicable Means and to make a Gnat Triumph over a Lyon Wherefore let no Creature how Great or how Little soever Presume on the One side or Despair on the Other REFLEXION THERE is Nothing either so Great or so Little as not to be Lyable to the Vicissitudes of Fortune whether for Good or for Evil. A Miserable Fly is sufficient we see to take down the Stomach of a Lyon And then to Correct the Insulting Vanity of That Fly it falls the next Moment into the Toyl of a Spider 'T is Highly Improvident not to Obviate small Things and as Ridiculous to be Baffled by them and it is not the Force neither but the Importunity that is so Vexatious and Troublesom to us The very Teizing of the Lyon Gall'd him more then an Arrow at his Heart would have done The Doctrine is This That no Man is to Presume upon his Power and Greatness when Every Pityful Insect may find out a Way to Discompose him But That Pityful Insect again is not to Value himself upon his Victory neither for the Gnat that had the Better of the Lyon in the very next Breath was Worsted by a Spider THE FABLES OF BARLANDUS c. FAB CCII. A Lyon and a Frog A Lyon that was Ranging about for his Prey made a Stop all on a Sudden at a Hideous Yelling Noise he heard which not a little Startled him The Surprize put him at first into a Shaking Fit but as he was looking about and Preparing for the Encounter of some Terrible Monster what should he see but a Pityful Frog come Crawling out from the Side of a Pond And is This All says the Lyon and so betwixt Shame and Indignation he put forth his Paw and Pash'd out the Guts on 't The MORAL There 's no Resisting of First Motions but upon Second Thoughts we come Immediately to our selves again REFLEXION THE Surprize of the Lyon is to teach us that no Man living can be so Present to Himself as not to be put beside his Ordinary Temper upon some Accidents or Occasions but then his Philosophy brings him to a Right Understanding of Things and his Resolution carries him thorough All Difficulties It is Another Emphatical Branch of This Emblem that as the Lyon Himself was not Thorough-Proof against This Fantastical Alarum so it was but a Poor Wretched Frog all this while that Discompos'd him to shew the Vain Opinion and False Images of Things and how apt we are to be Transported with Those Fooleries which if we did but Understand we should Despise Wherefore 't is the Part of a Brave and a Wise-Man to Weigh and Examine Matters without Delivering up himself to the Illusion of Idle Fears and Panick Terrors It was in truth below the Dignity of a Lyon to Kill the Poor Creature but This however may be said in Plea for 't that he was asham'd to leave behind him a Witness of his Weakness FAB CCIII An Ant and a Pigeon AN Ant drop Unluckily into the Water as she was Drinking at the Side of a Brook A Wood-Pigeon took Pity of her and threw her a little Bough to lay hold on The Ant sav'd her self by that Bough and in That very Instant spies a Fellow with a Birding-Piece making a Shoot at The Pigeon Upon This Discovery she presently runs up to him and Stings him The Fowler starts and breaks his Aim and away flies the Pigeon The MORAL All Creatures have a Sense of Good Offices and Providence it self takes Care where Other Means fail that they may not Pass Unrewarded REFLEXION THE Practice of Requiting Good Offices is a Great Encouragement to the Doing of them and in truth without Gratitude there would be Little Good Nature for there is not One Good Man in the World that has not need of Another This Fable of the Ant is not All-together a Fiction for we have many Instances of the Force of Kindness even upon Animals and Insects To pass over the Tradition of Androdus's Lyon the Gratitude of Elephants Dogs and Horses is too Notorious to be Deny'd Are not Hawks brought to the Hand and to the Lure And in like manner are not Lyons Tygers Bears Wolves Foxes and other Beasts of Prey Reclaim'd by Good Usage Nay I have seen a Tame Spider and 't is a Common Thing to have a Lizzard come to Hand Man only is the Creature that to his Shame no Benefits can Oblige no
and a Wolfe AS a Wolfe was Hunting up and down for his Supper he pass'd by a Door where a Little Child was Bawling and an Old Woman Chiding it Leave your Vixen-Tricks says the Woman or I 'l throw ye to the Wolfe The Wolfe Over-heard her and Waited a pretty While in hope the Woman would be as good as her Word but No Child coming away goes the Wolfe for That Bout He took his Walk the Same Way again toward the Evening and the Nurse he found had Chang'd her Note for she was Then Muzzling and Cokesing of it That 's a Good Dear says she If the Wolfe comes for My Child We 'll e'en Beat his Brains out The Wolfe went Muttering away upon 't There 's No Meddling with People says he that say One Thing and Mean Another The MORAL 'T is Fear more then Love that makes Good Men as well as Good Children and when Fair Words and Good Councel will not Prevail upon us we must be Frighted into our Duty REFLEXION THE Heart and Tongue of a Woman are commonly a Great way asunder And it may bear Another Moral which is that 't is with Froward Men and Froward Factions too as 't is with Froward Children They 'll be sooner Quieted by Fear and Rough Dealing then by any Sense of Duty or Good Nature There would be no Living in This World without Penal Laws and Conditions And Do or Do not This or That at your Peril is as Reasonable and Necessary in Families as it is in Governments It is a Truth Imprinted in the Hearts of All Mankind that the Gibbets Pillories and the Whipping-Posts make more Converts then the Pulpits As the Child did more here for fear of the Wolfe then for the Love of the Nurse FAB CCXX An Eagle and a Tortoise A Tortoise was thinking with himself how Irksom a sort of Life it was to spend All his Days in a Hole with a a House upon his Head when so many Other Creatures had the Liberty to Divert Themselves in the Free Fresh Air and to Ramble about at Pleasure So that the Humor took him One Day and he must needs get an Eagle to Teach him to Fly The Eagle would fain have put him off and told him 't was a Thing against Nature and Common Sense but according to the Freak of the Wilful Part of the World the More the One was Against it the More the Other was For it And when the Eagle saw that the Tortoise would not be said Nay she took him up a matter of Steeple-high into the Air and there turn'd him Loose to shift for Himself That is to say she dropt him down Squab upon a Rock that Dash'd him to Pieces The MORAL Nothing can be either Safe or Easy that 's Unnatural REFLEXION THIS shews us how Unnatural a Vanity it is for a Creature that was Made for One Condition to Aspire to Another The Tortoise's Place was upon the Sands not among the Stars and if he had kept to his Station he would have been in No Danger of Falling Many a Fool has Good Councel Offer'd him that has not either the Wit or the Grace to Take it and his Willfulness commonly Ends in his Ruine Every thing in Nature has it's Appointed Place and Condition and there 's No putting a Force upon any thing contrary to the Biass and Intent of it's Institution What Bus'ness has a Tortoise among the Clouds Or why may not the Earth it self as well Covet a Higher Place as any Creature that 's Confin'd to 't It is in short a Silly an Extravagant and in Truth so Impious a Fancy that there can hardly be a Greater Folly then to Wish or but so much as to Suppose it But there 's an Ambition in Mean Creatures as well as in Mean Souls So many Ridiculous Upstarts as we find Promoted in the World we may Imagine to be so many Tortoises in the Air and when they have Flutter'd there a While like Paper-Kites for the Boys to stare at He that took them up grows either Asham'd or Weary of them and so lets them Drop again and with the Devil Himself e'en leaves them where he found them This may serve to put a Check to the Vanity and Folly of an Unruly Ambition that 's Deaf not only to the Advice of Friends but to the Councels and Monitions of the very Spirit of Reason it self For Flying without Wings is All one with Working without Means We see a Thousand Instances in the World Every jot as Ridiculous as This in the Fable That is to say of Men that are Made for One Condition and yet Affect Another What Signifies the Fiction of Phaeton in the Chariot of the Sun The Frog vying Bulk with an Oxe or the Tortoise Riding upon the Wings of the Wind but to Prescribe Bounds and Measures to our Exorbitant Passions and at the same time to shew us upon the Issue that All Unnatural Pretensions are Attended with a Certain Ruine FAB CCXXI An Old Crab and a Young CHild says the Mother You must Use your self to Walk Streight without Skewing and Shailing so Every step you set Pray Mother says the Young Crab do but set the Example your self and I 'll follow ye FAB CCXXII The Goose and Gosselin WHY do you go Nodding and Waggling so like a Fool as if you were Hipshot says the Goose to her Gosselin The Young One try'd to Mend it but Could not and so the Mother ty'd Little Sticks to her Legs to keep her Upright But the Little One Complain'd then that she could neither Swim nor Dabble with ' em Well says the Mother Do but hold up your Head at least The Gosselin Endeavour'd to do That too but upon the Stretching out of her Long Neck she complain'd that she could not see the Way before her Nay then says the Goose if it will be no Better e'en carry your Head and your Feet as your Elders have done before ye The Moral of the Two Fables above Ill Examples Corrupt even the Best Dispositions but we must Distinguish betwixt Natural and Moral Actions REFLEXION IT is Time Lost to Advise Others to do what we either Do not or Cannot do Our Selves There 's no Crossing of Nature but the Best way is to rest Contented with the Ordinary Condition of Things 'T is but so much Labour thrown away to Attempt the Altering of Instincts or the Curing of Ill Habits Example Works a great Deal more then Precept for Words without Practice are but Councels without Effect When we Do as we say 't is a Confirmation of the Rule but when our Lives and Doctrines do not Agree it looks as if the Lesson were either too Hard for us or the Advice not worth the While to Follow We should see to Mend our Own Manners before we Meddle to Reform our Neighbours and not Condemn Others for what we do our Selves Especially where they follow the Nature of their Kind and in so doing Do as they
his Vanity and Pretence for T'other is but according to his own Kind and Nature and Every thing is Well and Best while it Continues to be as God made it FAB CCXXV. A Fox and a Worm A Worm put forth his Head out of a Dunghil and made Proclamation of his Skill in Physick Pray says the Fox Begin with your Own Infirmities before you Meddle with other Peoples The MORAL Physician Cure thy Self REFLEXION SAYING and Doing are Two Things Physician Cure thy self Preaches to us upon This Fable Every Man does Best in his own Trade and the Cobler is not to go beyond his Last We have of These Dunghil-Pretenders in All Professions and but too many of them that Thrive upon their Arrogance If This Worm had met with an Ass to Encourage his Vanity instead of a Fox to Correct it he might have been Advanc'd to a Doctor of the College perhaps Or to some more Considerable Post of Honour either in Church or State FAB CCXXVI A Curst Dog THere was a very Good House-Dog but so Dangerous a Cur to Strangers that his Master put a Bell about his Neck to give People Notice before-hand when he was a Coming The Dog took this Bell for a Particular Mark of his Master's Favour till One of his Companions shew'd him his Mistake You are Mightily Out says he to take This for an Ornament or a Token of Esteem which is in truth no Other then a Note of Infamy set upon you for your Ill Manners The MORAL This may serve for an Admonition to Those that make a Glory of the Marks of their Shame and Value themselves upon the Reputation of an Ill-Character REFLEXION 'T IS a Bad World when the Rules and Measures of Good and Evil are either Inverted or Mistaken and when a Brand of Infamy passes for a Badge of Honour But the Common People do not Judge of Vice or Vertue by the Morality or the Immorality of the Matter so much as by the Stamp that is set upon 't by Men of President and Figure What 's more Familiar then an Ostentation of Wickedness where Impiety has the Reputation of Vertue As in the Excesses of Wine and Women and the Vanity of bearing up against all the Laws of God and Man When Lewdness comes once to be a Fashion it has the Credit in the World that other Fashions have as we see Many times an Affectation even of Deformity it self where some Exemplary Defect has brought that Deformity to be a Mode The Fancy of This Dog was somewhat like the French Womans Freak that stood up for the Honour of her Family Her Coat was Quarter'd she said with the Arms of France which was so far True that she had the Flower-de-Luce Stamp'd we must not say Branded upon her Shoulder FAB CCXXVII Two Friends and a Bear TWO Friends that were Travelling together had the Fortune to Meet a Bear upon the Way They found there was no Running for 't So the One Whips up a Tree and the Other throws himself Flat with his Face upon the Ground The Bear comes directly up to Him Muzzles and Smells to him puts his Nose to his Mouth and to his Ears and at last taking for Granted that 't was only a Carcass there he leaves him The Bear was no sooner gone but Down comes his Companion and ask'd him what it was the Bear Whisper'd him in the Ear. He bad me have a Care says he how I keep Company with those that when they find themselves upon a Pinch will leave their Friends in the Lurch The MORAL Every Man for Himself and God for us All. REFLEXION THIS Fable has in a Few Words a Great many Useful and Instructive Morals The Man upon the Tree Preaches to us upon the Text of Charity begins at Home According to the False and Perverse Practice of the World when their Companions are in Distress The Bear passes a Judgment upon the Abandoning of a Friend in a Time of Need as an Offence both to Honour and Vertue And moreover Cautions us above All Things to have a Care what Company we keep There 's no Living in This World without Friendship No Society No Security without it Beside that the Only Tryal of it is in Adversity And yet nothing Commoner in times of Danger then for States-men Sword-men Church-men Law-men and intruth all sorts of Men more or less to leave their Masters Leaders or Friends to Bears and Tygers Shew them a Fair pair of Heels for 't and cry The Devil Take the Hindmost FAB CCXXVIII A Horse-man's Whig Blown off THere was a Horse-man had a Cap on with a False Head of Hair Tack'd to 't There comes a Puff of Wind and Blows off Cap and Whig together The People made sport he saw with his Bald Crown and so very fairly he put In with them to Laugh for Company Why Gentlemen says he would you have me keep other Peoples Hair Better then I did my Own The MORAL Many a Man would be Extremely Ridiculous if he did not Spoil the Iest by Playing upon Himself first REFLEXION 'T IS a Turn of Art in many Cases either of Deformity or Mischance where a Man lies open to a Reproach to Anticipate an Abuse and to make Sport with Himself first A Man may be Shame-Fac'd and a Woman Modest to the Degree of Scandalous I knew a Lady had one of the most Bashful Scrupulous Persons to her Daughter that ever was Born Well says she I am mightily afraid This Girl will prove a Whore for she is so Infinitely Modest that in my Conscience if any Man should ever Ask her the Question she would not have the Face to Deny him A Frank Easy way of Openness and Candor agrees Best with All Humours and He that 's Over-solicitous to Conceal a Thing does as good as make Proclamation of it Wherefore the Horse-man here Laugh'd first and so Prevented the Iest. FAB CCXXIX Two Pots THere were Two Pots that stood near One Another by the Side of a River the One of Brass and the other of Clay The VVater overflow'd the Banks and Carry'd them Both away The Earthen Vessel kept Aloof from T'other as much as Possible Fear Nothing says the Brass Pot I 'll do you No Hurt No No says T'other not willingly but if we should happen to Knock by Chance 't would be the same Thing to Me So that You and I shall never do well together The MORAL Unequal Fellowships and Alliances are Dangerous Not but that Great and Small Hard and Brittle Rich and Poor may sort Well enough together so long as the Good Humour Lasts but wherever there are Men there will be Clashing some time or other and a Knock or a Contest spoils All. REFLEXION THERE can be no True Friendship properly so Call'd but betwixt Equals The Rich and the Poor the Strong and the Weak will never agree together For there 's Danger on the One side and None on the Other and 't is the Common
Pleasure of Providence Nature is pleas'd to Entertain her self with Variety Some of her Works are for Ornament others for the Use and Service of Mankind But they have All Respectively their Proprieties and their Vertues for she does nothing in Vain The Peacock Values himself upon the Gracefulness of his Train The Crane's Pride is in the Rankness of her Wing Which are only Two Excellencies in several Kinds Take them apart and they are Both Equally Perfect but Good Things Themselves have their Degrees and That which is most Necessary and Useful must be Allow'd a Preference to the Other FAB CCXXXV A Tyger and a Fox AS a Huntsman was upon the Chace and the Beasts flying before him Let Me alone says a Tyger and I 'll put an end to This War my self At which Word he Advanced toward the Enemy in his Single Person The Resolution was no sooner Taken but he found himself Struck through the Body with an Arrow He Fasten'd upon it presently with his Teeth and while he was Trying to Draw it out a Fox Ask'd him from what Bold Hand it was that he Receiv'd This Wound I know Nothing of That says the Tyger but by the Circumstances it should be a Man The MORAL There 's No Opposing Brutal Force to the Stratagems of Humane Reason REFLEXION BOLDNESS without Counsel is no better then an Impetus which is commonly Worsted by Conduct and Design There 's No Man so Daring but some time or Other he Meets with his Match The Moral in short holds forth This Doctrine that Reason is too Hard for Force and that Temerity puts a Man off his Guard 'T is a High Point of Honour Philosophy and Vertue for a Man to be so Present to Himself as to be always Provided against All Encounters and Accidents whatsoever but This will not Hinder him from Enquiring Diligently into the Character the Strength Motions and Designs of an Enemy The Tyger lost his Life for want of This Circumspection FAB CCXXXVI A Lyon and Bulls THere was a Party of Bulls that Struck up a League to Keep and Feed together and to be One and All in case of a Common Enemy If the Lyon could have Met with any of them Single he would have done His Work but so long as they Stuck to This Confederacy there was No Dealing with them They fell to Variance at last among Themselves The Lyon made his Advantage of it and then with Great Ease he Gain'd his End The MORAL This is to tell us the Advantage the Necessity and the Force of Union And that Division brings Ruine REFLEXION THERE 's No Resisting of a Common Enemy No Maintaining of a Civil Community without an Union for a Mutual Defence and there may be also on the Other Hand a Conspiracy of Common Enmity and Aggression There are Cases indeed of Great Nicety that fall under the Topique of the Right and Lawfulness of Joyning in such Leagues He that is not Sui Iuris must not Enter into any Covenants or Contracts to the Wrong of his Master But there are Certain Rules of Honesty and Methods of Government to Direct us in all Agreements of This Quality A Thing simply Good in it self may become Unjust and Unrighteous under such and such Circumstances In a Word the Main Bond of All Bodies and Interests is Union which is No Other in Effect then a Common Stock of Strength and Counsel Joyn'd in One. While the Bulls kept together they were Safe but so soon as ever they separated they became a Prey to the Lyon FAB CCXXXVII A Fir and a Bramble THere goes a Story of a Fir-Tree that in a Vain spiteful Humour was mightily upon the Pin of Commending it self and Despising the Bramble My Head says the Fir is advanc'd among the Stars I furnish Beams for Palaces Masts for Shipping The very Sweat of my Body is a Sovereign Remedy for the Sick and Wounded Whereas the Rascally Bramble runs creeping in the Dirt and serves for No Purpose in the World but Mischief Well says the Bramble that Over-heard all This You might have said somewhat of your Own Misfortune and to My Advantage too if Your Pride and Envy would have suffer'd you to do it But pray will you tell me however when the Carpenter comes next with his Axe into the Wood to Fell Timber whether you had not rather be a Bramble then a Fir-Tree The MORAL Poverty Secures a Man from Thieves Great and Small Whereas the Rich and the Mighty are the Mark of Malice and Cross Fortune and still the Higher they Are the Nearer the Thunder REFLEXION THERE is no State of Life without a Mixture in 't of Good and Evil and the Highest Pitch of Fortune is not without Dangers Cares and Fears This Doctrine is Verify'd by Examples Innumerable thorough the Whole History of the World and that the Mean is Best both for Body Mind and Estate Pride is not only Uneasie but Unsafe too for it has the Power and Justice of Heaven and the Malicious Envy of Men to Encounter at the same Time and the Axe that Cuts down the Fir is Rightly Moralliz'd in the Stroke of Divine Vengeance that brings down the Arrogant while the Bramble Contents it self in its Station That is to say Humility is a Vertue that never goes without a Blessing FAB CCXXXVIII A Covetous Man and an Envious THere was a Covetous and an Envious Man that Joyn'd in a Petition to Iupiter who very Graciously Order'd Apollo to tell them that their Desire should be Granted at a Venture provided only that whatever the One Ask'd should be Doubled to the Other The Covetous Man that thought he could never have enough was a good While at a Stand Considering that let him Ask Never so much the Other should have Twice as much But he came however by Degrees to Pitch upon One Thing after Another and his Companion had it Double It was now the Envious Man's turn to Offer up His Request which was that One of his Own Eyes might be put out for his Companion was then to lose Both. The MORAL Avarice and Envy are Two of the most Diabolical and Insociable Vices under Heaven The One Assumes All to it self and the Other Wishes Every bit it's Neighbour Eats may Choak him REFLEXION THERE are some Pestilent Humours and Froward Natures that Heaven it self has much ado to please Envy Places it's Happiness in the Misery and Misfortune of Others and Avarice is never to be Pleas'd unless it can get All to it self They may seem to be nearer a-Kin then in truth they Are though the One is seldom or never to be found without the Other The Best Use of This Application is to Possess us with a True Sense of the Restlesness of these Two Passions and Consequently to make Those Weaknesses Odious to our selves that are so Troublesome to the World and in truth no Better then the Common Pest of Mankind FAB CCXXXIX A Crow and a Pitcher A Crow
Mistake your self for the Person that You come for lies in the Bed there The MORAL 'T is a Common Thing to Talk of Dying for a Friend but when it comes to the Push once 't is no more then Talk at last REFLEXION THIS Confirms the Proverb that Charity begins at Home and when All is done there 's No Man loves a Friend so Well but he Loves Himself Better There are No People more Startled at Death then Those that have gotten a Custom of Calling for 't Oh that Death would Deliver Me says One Oh that Death would take Me in the Place of my Dear Husband says T'other But when Death comes to Present Himself indeed and to take them at their Words the Good Wife very Civilly puts the Change upon him and tells him that the Person he comes for lies in the Bed there In Few Words to call for Death in Iest is Vain and Unprofitable To call for 't in Earnest is Impious And to call for 't at all is both Foolish and Needless for Death will most certainly come at his appointed time whether he be call'd for or No. FAB CCCXI. A Son Singing at his Mothers Funeral THere was a Good Man that follow'd his Wives Body to the Grave Weeping and Wayling all the Way he went while his Son follow'd the Corps Singing Why Sirrah says the Father You should Howle and Wring your Hands and do as I do ye Rogue You and not go Sol-Fa-ing it about like a Mad-man Why Father says he You give the Priests Money to Sing and will you be Angry with Me for giving ye a Song Gratis Well says the Father but That which may become the Priests will not always become You. 'T is their Office to Sing but it is Your Part to Cry The MORAL Funeral Tears are as Arrantly 〈◊〉 out as Mourning Cloaks and so are the very Offices And whether we go to our Graves Sniveling or Singing 't is all but according to the Fashion of the Country and Meer Form REFLEXION THE Methods of Government and of Humane Society must be Preserv'd where Every Man has his Roll and his Station Assign'd him and it is not for One Man to break in upon the Province of Another This Moral tells us also that when One Man Condoles for the Distresses of Another 't is more for Money or for Company then for Kindness 'T is a slavish sort of Ceremony and Imposition that People must be Train'd up by Certain Rules of Art and Prescription to the very Manage and Government of the most Free and Natural of our Affections for we are Taught and Appointed the very Methods and Degrees of Grieving and Rejoycing and to do Honour to the Dead by the Counterfeit Lamentations of the Living But This way of Mourning by Rule is rarher an Ostentation of Sorrow then an Indication of it Now to say the Truth of the Matter Terms and Modes have Corrupted the Sincerity of our Manners as well toward our Living Friends as to the Memory of Those Departed We have hardly any thing left in our Conversation that is Pure and Genuine But the way of Civility in Fashion casts a Blind over the Duty under some Certain Customary Presidents of Empty Words So that at This rate we Impose One upon Another without any regard to Faith Truth or Vertue But we must Sing in some Cases and Cry in Others and there 's an End on 't FAB CCCXII A Iealous Husband A Iealous Husband Committed his Wife in Confidence to the Care and Custody of a Particular Friend with the Promise of a Considerable Reward if he could but keep her Honest. After some Few Days the Friend grew Weary of his Charge and desir'd her Husband to take his Wife Home again and Release him of his Bargain for says he I find it utterly Impossible to Hinder a Woman from any thing she has a Mind to If it were to turn a Bag of Fleas Loose into a Meadow every Morning a Grazing and Fetch them home again at Night I durst be answerable with my Life for the Doing of it to a single Flea but T'other is a Commission I dare go no further in The MORAL 'T is enough to Make a Woman a Whore but so much as to Phansy her One and then 't is no Boot to be Iealous neither for if the Humour takes her to be Iadish 't is not All the Locks Bolts and Spies in Nature that can keep her Honest. REFLEXION IEALOUST betwixt Man and Wife does but Provoke and Enflame the Appetite as it sets the Invention at Work upon Ways and Means of giving One Another the Slip And when it comes to a Tryal of Skill once 't is a Carrying of the Cause to gain the Point and there 's a kind of Perverse Reputation in getting the Better on 't Briefly 't is Labour Lost on Both sides while the One is never to be Restrain'd nor the Other to be satisfied For Jealousie Rages as well without Reason as with it Nay the very Will to do a Thing is as Good as the Thing Done And his Head is as Sick that but fancies the Thing Done as if he saw the very Doing of it with his Own Eyes The Ways of a Woman that has a mind to play Fast and Loose are as Unsearchable as the very Thoughts of her Heart and therefore the Friend here was in the Right to Discharge Himself of his Trust and throw up his Commission FAB CCCXIII. A Man that would not take a Glister WHen the Patient is Rich there 's No Fear of Physicians about him as Thick as Wasps to a Honey-Pot and there was a Whole College of them call'd to a Consultation upon a Purse-Proud Dutch-man that was Troubled with a Megrim The Doctors prescrib'd him a Clyster The Patient fell into a Rage upon 't Why Certainly These People are All Mad says he to talk of Curing a Mans Head at his Tayl. The MORAL He that Consults his Physician and will not Follow his Advice must be his Own Doctor But let him take the Old Adage along with him He that Teaches Himself has a Fool to his Master REFLEXION 'T IS a Miserable Thing when Men that Understand Nothing at all shall take upon them to Censure and to Pre-judge every thing that they do not Understand What 's the Use of a College if every Particular Man shall set up to be his Own Doctor And 't is the same Case where Subjects tske upon them to Correct Magnificat and to Prescribe to their Superiors Let every Man be Trusted in his Own Way and let the Doctor Prescribe to the Patient not the Patient to the Doctor For at the Rate of This Thick-skull'd Blunder-head every Plow-jobber shall take upon him to Read upon Divinity Law and Politiques as well as Physick FAB CCCXIV A Wolfe and a Sick Ass. THere was a certain Wolfe that in a Qualm of Wonderful Charity made a Visit to an Ass that lay Ill of a Violent Fever He felt
a Common Mistake of Matters at Home as well as Abroad for we keep Registers of our Neighbours Faults and none of their Good Deeds and no Memorials all this while of what we do Amiss our Selves But I am not as this Publican is the very Top of our Righteousness Thus goes the World and a Lew'd Practice it is for one Man to value himself upon the Wickedness of another But the Worst of all is yet behind that is to say to think our selves safe so long as we keep our Iniquities from the Knowledge of Men and out of our own View and Memory without any Awe of that Justice that never Sleeps and of that All-seeing Eye and Wisdom that Observes all our Mis-doings and has them perpetually in his Sight FAB CCCLXXXIX A King and a Rich Subject A Certain Prince that had a very Wealthy Over-grown Subject found it convenient to make a Traitor of him provided it could but Handsomly be brought about So the Man was taken into Custody and the Kings Evidence produced against him for Consults at this Place and at that against the Life of the King and the Peace of the Government and for Receiving Comforting and Abetting the Enemies of the Crown The Man had the Character of a very Loyal Person and People were almost at their Wits end to hear of so Horrid an Accusation against him But the Witnesses Swore Home and one of them Extream Positive that if his House at that very instant were but narrowly Search'd for Men and Arms they would find such a Provision that the Modern Discoveries at Tichbourn and Flixham were Nothing to 't The Pretended Criminal began now to Moralize upon the Story and so away goes he to his Majesty casts himself at his Feet and promises that if he might but have as Ample a Pardon as other Witnesses to Consults have had before him he would shew him the very Bottom of the Plot. I cannot deny says he but I have a great many of the Enemies of your Royal Crown and Dignity at this time Conceal'd in my House and if your Majesty shall be pleased to appoint any Person to make Seizure of them they shall be immediately Delivered up So the Prince Order'd a Squadron of his Guards and a Trusty Officer in the Head of 'em to go along with him The Gentleman led them very Frankly to his Coffers and shew'd them his Treasure These are the Traytors says he that you are to take care of and pray be pleas'd to see that they may be kept in safe Custody till they shall be Delivered by Due Course of Law The MORAL We may gather from hence that Riches are many times but a Snare to us and that Mony makes many a Man a Traytor But if a Body will Compound at last with his Estate to save his Life when he has nothing left him he may be at Rest. For a Certificate of Poverty is as good as a Protection REFLEXION THE Story of Ahab and Naboth comes directly to the Point of this Fable that is to say as to the King and Subject with the Iniquity of the Subornation and Practice Only the one was a Poor Subject and the other a Rich which does not one jot alter the Morality of the Case The Old Saying that Mony does all things is not much wide of the Truth for it gives and it takes away it makes Honest Men and Knaves Fools and Philosophers and so forward Mutatis Mutandis to the End of the Chapter There 's not any Corruption in Nature but Mony is at one end on 't The whole World is under the Dominion of it for all things under the Sun are Bought and Sold. But as it gives Men Reputation so it brings People into Snares and Dangers too It exposes them to Factions Robbers Cheats Knights of the Post and the like It fills their Heads and their Hearts with Cares and Disquiets And what at last are all the Baggs and Possessions that Rich Men take so much Pride and Pleasure in but Spunges Deposited in their own Hands 'till there shall be occasion to Squeeze them for the Publick Use FAB CCCXC A Merchant and a Seaman A Merchant at Sea was asking the Ships-Master what Death his Father Dy'd He told him that his Father his Grandfather and his Great Grandfather were all Drown'd Well says the Merchant and are not you your self afraid of being Drown'd too No not I says the Skipper But Pray says t'other again what Death did Your Father Grandfather and Great Grandfather Dye Why they Dy'd all in their Beds says the Merchant Very good says the Skipper and why should I be any more afraid of going to Sea then you are of going to Bed The MORAL He that troubles his Head with drawing Consequences from meer Contingencies shall never be at rest And this is further to mind us that in an Honest Course of Life we are not to fear Death REFLEXION 'T is much in our own Power how to Live but not at all when or how to Dye So that our part is only to Submit to Fate and to bid Death Welcom at what Time and in what Place or Manner soever it shall please God to send it The Reason and the Doctrin of this Fable 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 surpriz'd 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
Propriety and in Legal Claims before a Bench of Justice but it works in a Thousand Instances of Vain Disputations Competitions and other Tryals of Mastery and Skill where there 's little more then Pride Stomach Will and Vanity to uphold the Contest Nay and he that has the better on 't at last is only the more Fortunate Fool of the Two Let but any Man set before him the Vexatious Delays Quirks and Expences of most of our Barretry Suits at Law and 't is odds he finds at the Foot of the Account the Play not worth the Candle FAB CCCCXII A Raging Lion THere was a Lion ran Stark Mad and the very Fright on 't put all the Beasts of the Forrest out of their Wits for Company Why what a Condition are we in they cry'd to fall under the Power of a Mad Lion when a Lion at the very Soberest is little better then Frantick The MORAL Rage upon Rage is a Double Madness REFLEXION Governors had need be very well Principled and good Natur'd to keep their Passions in Order and Obedience But when an Absolute Power shall come to be put upon the Stretch by an Outragious Humour there 's no Living under it By a Raging Lion is meant an Unruly and a Cruel Governor which is a sad Calamity but not without somewhat of Dignity yet in the Misfortune for 't is a Lion still how Mad soever Now if it had been a Raging Ape the Fancy had been Ridiculous and Scandalous to the Last Degree and therefore the Moral is Restrain'd to the True and Genuine Character of Sovereignty without Descending to the Counterfeit The Moralists that make this Raging of a Lion to be a Surcharge of One Madness upon another must not be Understood Simply as if they took Government for a Burden and an Oppression but it refers to the Infelicity of that State where an Impotent Will puts an Unbounded Power upon the Tenter. But let the Oppression be never so Sanguinary there 's no Appeal left from the Tyranny for if a General Insurrection had been thought Lawful the Fable would not have made the Case so Desperate So that this is only to Insinuate the Sacredness of Power let the Administration of it be what it will And the Reason of it is so plain that it is impossible for Human Frailty to be better Secur'd then it is by the Determinations of Providence in this Particular An Unlimited Power 't is true is a strong Temptation and where 't is Screw'd up to the Highest Pitch 't is a great Unhappiness but it is not for Men that have their Fortunes and their Stations in this World Assign'd them to take upon themselves to be their own Carvers and to Grumble at the Orders and Resolutions of their Masters and Rulers 'T is a Great Unhappiness to lye at the Mercy of a Raging Lion but it is a Christian Duty nevertheless to suffer Patiently under the Justice of such a Judgment FAB CCCCXIII The Kingdom of Apes TWo Men took a Voyage together into the Kingdom of Apes the one a Trimmer the other a Plain Dealer They were taken into Custody and carried to the Prince of the Country as he sat in State and a Mighty Court about him Well says the King to the Trimmer Look me in the Face now and say what do you take me to be A Great Emperor Undoubtedly says the Trimmer Well says his Majesty once again and what d' ye take all these People about me for Why Sir says he I take them for your Majesties Nobility and Great Officers The Prince was wonderfully pleas'd with the Civility and Respect of the Man and Order'd him a Bushel of Pippins as a singular Mark of his Royal Favour His Majesty after this put the same Questions to the Plain Dealer who fell to computing with Himself that if his Companion had gotten a Reward for a Damn'd Lye certainly he should have twice as much for a Plain Honest Truth and so he told the King Bluntly that he took him for a very Extraordinary Ape and all those People about him for his Trusty and Well-beloved Counsellors and Cozens But the Poor Man Paid dearly for his Simplicity for upon a Signal from the Emperor the whole Band of Apes fell Tooth and Nail upon him and tore him one Limb from another The MORAL Where the Rules and Measures of Policy are Perverted there must needs Ensue a Failure of Iustice and a Corruption of Manners And in a Kingdom of Apes Buffoons may well put in for Commission-Officers REFLEXION THIS says Camerarius is to reprove the Practices of perverse Courts and Extravagant Princes It is the proper Bus'ness of Mythology to Point out and Represent the Images of Good and Evil and under those Shadows to Teach us what we ought to do and what not either Severally and Apart or as Members of a Society that is to say Simply as Men in a State of Right Nature or as Parents or Children Masters or Servants Husbands or Wives Rulers or Subjects Friends Countrymen Relations and the like Now as there are Good and Bad of all sorts so their Virtues and their Vices their good Behaviour and their Misdemeanors are to be set forth Circumstanc'd and Distinguish'd in such sort as by Rewards or Punishments to Encourage the One and to Discountenance the Other in proportion to the Dignity of the Action or the Degree of the Offence by Conferring Marks and Characters of Honour Offices of Trust or Beneficial Commissions on the one hand and by inflicting Sentences of Shame Infamy Pains Corporal or Pecuniary on the other Without this Distribution one main end of Emblem is lost neither is it the true Figure of Life For Wicked Men False Brethren Unnatural Parents Disobedient Children Barbarous Husbands Undutiful Wives Tyrannical Weak or Fantastical Governors Rebellious Subjects Cruel Masters Faithless Servants Perfidious Kindred and Acquaintance All these Lewd Characters are as Absolutely necessary to the Perfecting of the Design as the most Laudable Excellencies in Nature In this Fable of the Kingdom of Apes the Author according to Camerarius intended the Picture of an Extravagant Government where he gives Flattery and Corruption the Advantages that in Policy and Justice belong to Services of Honour and of Truth And at the same time Delivers up a Man of Honesty Justice and Plain Dealing to be torn to Pieces This Kingdom of Apes has been Moralliz'd a Thousand and a Thousand times over in the Practice of the World and such as the Fountain is such will be the Stream Let Government it self be never so Sacred Governors are still but Men and how necessary and Beneficial soever the Order is at all Hands Confess'd to be the Officers yet and the Administrators are but Flesh and Blood and liable to the Passions and Frailties of other Mortals There are in fine many Distempers Errors and Extravagances that shew themselves in the Exercise of Political Powers as an inexorable Rigour for the Purpose or as
with her does worse then Beat her But we live in an Age when Women we hope are better Instructed then to fly in the face of Religion it self Law and Nature And these Desperate Encounters can never fall out betwixt a Man and his Wife but where the Woman is lost to all sense of Shame Prudence Modesty and Common Respect FAB CCCCXXIV A Fox and a Divining Cock A Fox that had spy'd out a Cock at Roost upon a Tree and out of his Reach fell all of a sudden into an Extravagant Fit of Kindness for him and to Enlarge upon the Wonderful Esteem he had for the Faculties and good Graces of the Bird but more particularly for his Skill in Divination and the Foreknowledge of Things to come Oh says he that I were but Worthy the Friendship of so great a Prophet This Flattery brought the Cock down from the Tree into the very Mouth of the Fox and so away he Trudges with him into the Woods reflecting still as he went upon the strange Force that Fair Words have upon vain Fools For this Sot of a Cock says he to take himself for a Diviner and yet not foresee at the same time that if he fell into my Clutches I should certainly make a Supper of him The MORAL A Fool that will Swallow Flattery shall never want a Knave to give it him REFLEXION THE Power of Flattery where it is once Entertain'd is well nigh Irresistible for it carries the Countenance of Friendship and Respect and Foolish Natures are easily wrought upon and Perverted under that Semblance When Pride Vanity and Weakness of Judgment meet in the same Person there 's no Resisting the Temptations of a fair Tongue and consequently no avoiding the Secret and Malicious Designs of a False Heart Here 's a Credulous Cock already prepar'd for the Entertainment of the Grossest of Flatteries Nothing so Ridiculous nothing so Impossible but it goes down whole with him for Truth and Earnest Nay and the Folly is so Unaccountable and the Madness so Notorious that in this Humour the most Spiteful Enemies we have in the World pass upon us for Friends The Cock takes the Council of a Fox and like the Squirrel to the Rattle-Snake puts himself into the Mouth of his Mortal Adversary How many such Diviners do we meet with in our Daily Conversation that lay their Lives Fortunes and Reputation at the Mercy of Parasites How many Sots that Commence Philosophers upon the Credit of these Fawning Slaves There 's no Fool to the great Fool that 's Fool'd by a little Fool nor any thing so Scandalous as to be the Fool Of a Fool. FAB CCCCXXV The Moon Begs a New Gown THe Moon was in a heavy Twitter once that her Cloaths never Fitted her Wherefore Pray Mother says she let the Taylor take Measure of me for a New-Gown Alas Child says the Mother how is it possible to make any one Garment to Fit a Body that appears every Day in a several Shape The MORAL 'T is the Humour of many People to be perpetually Longing for something or other that 's not to be had REFLEXION THIS shews us the Vanity of Impracticable Propositions and that there is no Measure to be taken of an Unsteady Mind There 's no Quieting of Unsettled Affections no satisfying of Unbounded Desires no possibility in short of either Fixing or Pleasing them Let a Man but say What he would have When and how Much or how Little and the Moons Taylor may take Measure of him but to be Longing for this thing to Day and for that thing to Morrow to change Likings for Loathings and to stand Wishing and Hankering at a Venture how is it possible for any Man to be at Rest in this Fluctuant Wandering Humour and Opinion There 's no fitting of a Gown to a Body that 's of One Size when you take Measure of it and of another when you come to put it on 'T is the very same Case with a Heart that is not True to it self And upon the whole Matter Men of this Levity are Condemn'd to the Misery of Living and Dying Uneasy FAB CCCCXXVI A Young Fellow about to Marry MArrying and Hanging they say go by Destiny and the Blade had this Thought in his Head perhaps that Desir'd the Prayers of the Congregation when he was upon the very Point of Matrimony His Friends gave him no Answer it seems which put him upon Reasoning the Matter with them Why Gentlemen says he if there had been but a Snick-up in the Case you 'd have cry'd the Lord Bless ye Sir and there 's more Danger in Marrying I hope then there is in Sneezing The MORAL The Parson was much in the Right sure that like the Hang-man ask'd all People Forgiveness that he was to Marry before he did Execution upon them REFLEXION MANY a Man runs a greater Risque in a Wise then the World is aware of The Whimsical Freak of this Young Bantering Spark would have made no Ill Ingredient into a Wise and a Sober Man's Litany and though it looks like a Jest there is somewhat in 't yet that may be worth a thinking Man's Earnest But there will need no more then the Experience of those that have Try'd the Circumstances of this Blessed State to Recommend the Morality of the Allusion to the Thought of others that are not yet Enter'd into the Matrimonial Noose FAB CCCCXXVII A Woman trusted with a Secret THere was a Good Woman in the Days when Good Women were in Fashion that valu'd her self Wonderfully upon the Faculty of Retention or for the sake of Good Manners upon the Admirable Gift she had in the Keeping of a Secret The Toy took her Husband in the Head once to make Tryal of her Vertue that way and so he told her One Morning upon Waking in the greatest Confidence Imaginable one of the Strangest Things perhaps that ever was heard of which had that Night Befall'n him But my Dear says he if you should Speak on 't again I 'm utterly Ruin'd and Women are generally so Leaky that in the whole Course of my Life I have hardly met with any one of the Sex that could not hold her Breath longer then she should keep a Secret Ah my Life says she but your Woman I assure ye is none of that Number What Betray my Husbands Secrets I 'd Dye a Thousand Deaths first No my Heart if ever I do may Her Husband at that word stop'd her Mouth for fear of some Bloody Imprecation and so told her Come Wife says he They that will Swear will Lye and so I 'll rather tell you upon Honour Look ye here what has befall'n me I have laid an Egg to Night and so he took the Egg from his Backside and bad her Feel on 't but if this should ever come to Light now People would say that I was Hen-Trod and the Disgrace of it would make me a Scandal to Mankind This Secret lay Burning in the Breast of the
a Service when in Truth you do me an Injury and therefore you deserve a double Death First For the Fault it self and then for the Justification of it The Moral of the Two Fables above 'T is according to the Course of those Kind Offices in the World which we call Friendship to do one another Good for our Own Sakes REFLEXION THERE' 's nothing Commoner in this World then the Case of the Mole here and the Weazle That is to say the Case of People that Value themselves mightily upon Merit when in the mean time they do only their own Bus'ness What Virtue is it for me to do another Man good by Chance or where 's the Obligation of doing it for my own Profit 'T is the Will of a Man that qualifies the Action A Body may do me Good and yet Deserve to be Punish'd for 't He may save my Life for the purpose with an Intention to take it away There is however some Regard to be had to the very Instrument that Providence makes use of for our Advantage But this is out of a Respect to the Providence not to the Man And we are not yet come up to the Force of the Fable neither for many People have the Confidence to Plead Merit when Effectually they do us Mischief FAB CCCCXLII A Woman Cat and Mice A Good Woman that was willing to keep her Cheeses from the Mice thought to Mend the Matter by getting her a Cat. Now Puss Answer'd the Womans Intent and Expectation in keeping the Mice from Nibbling the Cheeses but she her self at the same time devour'd the Mice Cheese and all The MORAL This has been our Case within the Memory of Man There were a matter of Half a Dozen Little Roguy Political Mice lay Nibbling at our Liberties and Properties and all Peoples Mouths Open'd for the Providing of some 500 Cats to Destroy them The End on 't was this they Kill'd the Vermine but then they Gobbled up Priviledges and All And was not the World well Amended REFLEXION THE Present State of Things is best unless we may be very well Assur'd that the Danger of the Remedy is not Greater then that of the Disease Nay it so falls out many times that a Thing may be Good for the Distemper and yet Mortal to the Patient Wherefore Men should never Trouble their Heads about Innovations for slight Matters without a strict Calculation upon the Profit or Loss of the Exchange The Fancy of the Cat and Mice Points very naturally at the Case of Monarchy and Episcopacy in the Days of King Charles the First There were Grievances of all sorts Complain'd of and Popular Disputes Rais'd about Prerogative and Arbitrary Power in the pretended Favour of Liberty and Property Every thing was amiss they cry'd and nothing would serve the Turn but a General Reformation and what was the Issue at last but the Cat that should have Kill'd the Mice Eat up as the Fable says Mice Cheese and All. FAB CCCCXLIII A Man in Tears for the Loss of his Wife NEver had any Man such a Loss in a Woman certainly as I have had cries a VViddower in the Flush of his Extravagancies for a Dead Wife Never so dear a Creature Never so Miserable a Wretch And so he runs Raving on how he should Abhor the Sex it self now she is gone As he was in the Transport of his Lamentations and about half thorough the Farce he started all on a sudden and call'd out to the Woman about the Body who it seems had gotten the best Piece of Linnen in the House for a Winding Sheet Pray says he will you take another Cloth for the Present and let this be laid by for my next Wife if it should be the Lords will to have me Bury another This set the Company a Laughing for all their Sorrow to see the Good Man so soon brought to his Wits again The MORAL Funeral Tears are but Matter of Form and it is a Distinguishing Mark of Hypocrisy to take upon us to be Kind as well as to be Righteous beyond Measure But Time and Nature will bolt out the Truth of Things thorough all Disguises REFLEXION IT is Morally Impossible for an Hypocrite to keep himself long upon his Guard for the Force is Unnatural and the least Slip or Surprize either of Word Look or Action Discovers the Cheat. 'T was well enough put to a Fellow under the same Circumstances by a Friend of his when he saw nothing else would Comfort him Come says he after all this Roaring and Tearing what Boot at last betwixt my Warm Wife and thy Cold one Which may serve for a Notable Moral of Consolation in some Cases Witness the Gentleman that try'd both Fortunes in one and the same Woman His Wife was given over and himself waiting in the next Room with the Rage and Impatience of a Mad-man for fear of Ill News when at last in comes one of the Nurses to him with the Dismal Tydings that my Poor Lady was Dead and had been now Stone Cold for at least a Quarter of an Hour My Dear Wife Dead says he Nay we 'll never part sure and so with a Thousand Frantick Exclamations he strips immediately and to Bed to her he goes takes her into his Arms and there Treats her with all the Tender Passionate Things that a Well-acted Love and Desparation could put into his Mouth Winding up all in fine with this Resolution that he would never forsake her but they must Live and Dye together Let this Instance serve for a Caution to People how they Play with Edge Tools for this Fooling brought the Woman to Life 〈◊〉 and turn'd the Jest into Earnest Nay the Man Himself took it for a Warning too for from that time to the Hour of her Death which was near Seven Year after he never came betwixt a pair of Sheets with her But to conclude all in a Word happy is the Man considering the Hazzards of Conjugal Disagreements Ungracious Children None at all or the Loss of them and Twenty other common Circumstances that in a Marry'd State has the good Fortune to make a Saving Game on 't FAB CCCCXLIV A Rich Man that would be no Richer THere was a Huge Rich Man that could neither Eat nor Sleep for fear of Losing his Mony The whole Entertainment of his Life was Vision and Phantome Thieves Earthquakes Inundations nothing in short came amiss to him that was Possible Dangerous and Terrible In this Torment of a Restless Imagination he call'd a Begger to him told him his Case and now says he I must send you presently of an Errand to Fortune Go your ways to her immediately you 'll find her in Iapan and desire her from me that for the future she 'll never Trouble her self further upon any Accompt of mine for I am absolutely resolv'd never to touch Penny of her Mony more Be gone this very Moment and I 'll give you a Hundred Crowns for your Pains Why truly
told ye And in the mean time I 'll e'en lye down in Peace and keep my Self just as I am and where I am and if ever you live to come back again do but look for me where you left me and there if I 'm Alive you shall be sure to Find me Upon these Terms they parted and away Posts the Cavalier in Quest of his new Mistress His First Jaunt is to Court where he Enquires for Madam Fortunes Lodgings But she shifted so often they told him that there was no certainty of Finding her He never fail'd to make One at the Princes Levee and Couche where he heard over and over how she had been at this Place and at that Place but never could get sight of her They told him indeed that at such or such a Time he might be sure of her at this Minions or at that Buffoons Apartment but she was still so Busy and so Private that there was no coming to the Speech of her In fine when he had Hunted and waited like a Dog Early and Late I know not how long one told him for a certain that she had newly taken Wing and was gone a Progress to a Temple she had in Terra Australis Incognita Upon this he takes his leave of the Court and away immediately to Sea where he meets with Pyrates Rocks and Shelves and in short so many Dreadful Encounters as made him cast many a heavy Look and Thought upon the Quiet Cottage and Companion that he had left behind him But he goes pressing forward still for all this 'till in the conclusion he was Fobb'd again with another Story That Fortune 't is true had been there but she was call'd away by an Express not above Two Minutes before to the Nor'ward These Phantastical Amusements and Miscarriages brought him by little and little to his Wits again and to a contempt of all the vain Promises and Pretences of Avarice and Ambition With these Thoughts about him he makes all the hast he can back again to his poor Blessed Home where he finds his old Friend and Acquaintance without any Cares in his Head Fast Asleep and that very Fortune that had led him this Wild-Goose Chase over the whole World waiting like a Spaniel at the Door and Begging to be let in The MORAL It is with Fortune as it is with other Fantastical Mistresses she makes sport with those that are ready to Dye for her and throws her self at the Feet of others that Despise her REFLEXION 'T IS Great Vertue and Happiness for a Man to set his Heart wholly upon that Lot and Station which Providence has Assigned him and to Content himself with what he has without Wand'ring after Imaginary Satisfactions in what he has not Fancy and Curiosity have no Bounds Their Motto may be SOMEWHAT ELSE And how should it be otherwise with People that are never Pleas'd with the Present They want they know not what and they look for 't they know not where We have had so many Occasions already to handle this Moral that it would be Time lost to say any more upon 't in this Place FAB CCCCLIV A Boy that would not Learn his Book THere was a Stomachful Boy put to School and the whole World could not bring him to Pronounce the First Letter of his Alphabet Open your Mouth says the Master and cry A. The Boy Gapes without so much as offering at the Vowel When the Master could do no good upon him his School-Fellows took him to Task among Themselves Why 't is not so hard a Thing methinks says one of 'em to cry A No says the Boy 't is not so hard neither but if I should cry A once they 'd make me cry B too and I 'll never do that I 'm Resolv'd The MORAL There 's no Contending with Obstinacy and Ill Nature especially were there 's a Perverseness of Affection that goes along with it REFLEXION THE Spaniards will have it that Apes can speak if they would but they are afraid they shall be put to Work then The Boys Reason here and the Apes are much at one and 't is the case of Counterfeit Cripples too that pretend they cannot do this or that when in truth they are Lazy and have no mind to be put to 't The same Humour Governs in a World of Cases where a Pretext of Disability is made use of either out of Crossness or Sloth This Restiff Stubbornness is never to be Excus'd under any Pretence whatsoever but where the thing to be done is that which we are bound in Honour and in Duty to do there 's no Enduring of it As in Cases of Law Conscience Church-Ceremonies Civil or Natural Obedience to Princes Parents Husbands Masters c. If I should do This you 'd make me do That they cry which is only a short Resolution that puts all the Functions and Offices of Order and Authority to a stand He that says I cannot do this or that where the Thing is Lawfully Impos'd and Requir'd and not Simply Evil might e'n as well have said I will not do 't for the Exception is not to the Thing Commanded but to the Commanding Power If I yield in one Point says the Boy they 'l expect I should yield in more Grant One Prerogative and grant All says the Republican But then says the Sovereign on the Other Hand Part with the Prerogative and part with All So that the Contest is not matter of Scruple but who shall be Uppermost In One Word Stubborn Boys and Stubborn Subjects where they will not Comply upon Fair Means must be whip'd into their Duties FAB CCCCLV Hercules and Pluto WHen Hercules was taken up to Heaven for his Glorious Actions he made his Reverence in Course to all the Gods 'till he came to Pluto upon whom he turn'd his Back with Indignation and Contempt Iupiter ask'd him what he meant by that Dis-respect Why says Hercules that Son of Fortune Corrupts the whole World with Mony Encourages all manner of Wickedness and is a common Enemy to all Good Men. The MORAL This is only to shew the Opposition betwixt a Narrow Sordid Avaritious Humour and the Publick Spirited Generosity of a Man of Honour Industry and Virtue REFLEXION MONY has its Use 't is true but generally speaking the Benefit does not Countervail the Cares that go along with it and the Hazzards of the Temptation to Abuse it It is the Patron and the Price of all Wickedness It Blinds all Eyes and stops all Ears from the Prince to the very Begger It Corrupts Faith and Justice and in one Word 't is the very Pick-Lock that opens the way into all Cabinets and Councils It Debauches Children against their Parents it makes Subjects Rebel against their Governors it turns Lawyers and Divines into Advocates for Sacrilege and Sedition and it Transports the very Professors of the Gospel into a Spirit of Contradiction and Defiance to the Practices and Precepts of our Lord and Master It
First for it is a Vain Opinion of our Selves that lays us Open to be Impos'd upon by Others FAB CCCCLXXXI Three Dreaming Travellers THree Men were Travelling through a VVilderness the Journey it seems was longer then they thought for and their Provisions fell short but there was enough left for any One of 'em yet though too little for all and how to Dispose of the Remainder was the Question Come says One of the Three Let 's e'en lye Down and Sleep and he that has the Strangest Dream shall have That that 's Left The Motion was Agreed to and so they dispos'd themselves to their Rest. About Midnight Two of them VVak'd and told one another their Dreams Lord says one of 'em What a Fancy have I had I was taken up methought into the Heavens I know not how and there set down just before Jupiter's Throne And I says T'other was Hurry'd away by a Whirlwind methought to the very Pit of Hell The Third all this while Slept Dog-Sleep and heard every VVord they said They fell then to Lugging and Pinching their Companion to tell him the Story Nay pray be Quiet says he What are ye Why we are your Fellow Travellers they Cry'd Are ye come back again then says he They told him they had never stirr'd from the Place where they were Nay then says t'other 't was but a Dream for I Fancy'd that One of ye was Carry'd away with a Whirlwind to Jupiter and t'other to Pluto And then thought I to my Self I shall never see these Poor People again so I e'n fell on and Eat up all the Victuals The MORAL There is a Fooling sort of Wit that has Nothing more in 't then the Tricking up of some Insipid Conceit to no manner of Purpose but to Mortify Good Company and Tire out an Ingenious Conversation The Iests of these People are only to be Order'd as we do Cucumbers Wash them and Beat them and then throw them out at the Window That is to say they are Flat and Insipid without either Meaning or Morality to help them out REFLEXION WHERE Men will be Fooling and Bantering a Trick for a Trick is but Common Reason and Justice and it comes closer yet too when the Trick is Encounter'd with Another of the same Kind for it does not only spoil the Jest but makes the Aggressor Himself Ridiculous especially when the Design is Forelay'd and Concerted in Form as here in the Fable The Frolick of a Cleanly Banter may do well enough off-hand and without Affectation but a Deliberated Foolery is most Abominably Fulsome FAB CCCCLXXXII Reason of State UPon the coming out of a Book Entitled Reason of State there happen'd a warm Dispute in the Cabinet of a Great Prince upon that Subject Some would have it to be The Skill of Erecting Defending and Enlarging a Common-Wealth Others were for changing the Title from Reason of State to Reason of Policy And a Third Party was for Correcting the former Definition and rather running it thus Reason of State is a Rule Useful for Common-Wealths how contrary soever to the Laws both of God and Man There was great Exception taken to the Plain Dealing of this Latter Definition but upon Consulting Presidents it was found very Agreeable to the Practical Truth of the matter The MORAL Honesty may do well enough betwixt Man and Man but the Measures of Government and Righteousness are quite Different Things The Question in Reason of State is not Virtue but Prudence REFLEXION Reason of State in the Simplicity of the Notion is only the Force of Political Wisdom Abstracted from the Ordinary Rules and Methods of Conscience and Religion It consults only Civil Utility and never Matters it provided the Publick may be the better for 't though the Instruments and Managers go to the Devil 'T is somewhat with Statesmen and their Disciples as it was with the Patient and his Physician that Advis'd him for his Healths sake to have the Use of a Woman The Good Man Scrupled the Remedy Well says the Doctor I Prescribe to your Body not to your Soul which are Two Distinct Provinces and when I have done my Duty to the One let your Confessor look to the Other It is most certain that Reason of State is a very Devillish Thing under a Specious Name and a Cover for all Wickedness What are Alliances and Ruptures but Temporary Expedients And the Ordinary Reasons of War and Peace are very little Better then Banter and Paradox This is the very Truth of the Matter and may be seen at large in the History of all the Governments in the World But it is One of those Truths yet that is not at all times to be spoken and 't is the part of a Wise Man in these Cases to Hear See and Say Nothing FAB CCCCLXXXIII An Eagle and a Leveret AN Eagle that was Sharp set and upon the Wing looking about her for her Prey spy'd out a Leveret made a Stoop like Light'ning and Truss'd it and as she had it in the Foot the Miserable Wretch Enter'd into an Idle Expostulation upon the Conscience and Justice of the Proceeding With what Honesty says the Hare Can you Invade the Right of another Body Why says the Eagle To whom do you belong then I belong to him says the Other whom Heaven has made the Master of all Living Creatures under the Sun and from whom That Propriety cannot be taken without manifest Wrong and Usurpation Man is My Master and I know no other Well says the Eagle again in Wrath And what 's the Title now that he pretends to this Propriety Why 't is the Excellency of his Reason says the Hare that Entitles him to this Sovereignty which is a Claim that from the Creation of the VVorld to this Day was never Subjected to the Question In Truth says the Eagle You have Advanc'd a very Pretty Invention here in setting up Reason against Force where the Cause is not to be Decided by Argument but by Power And to Convince ye now how much I am in the Right You shall find in despite of all other Pretensions since I have ye under my Government and Law that you were not Born for Him but for Me. The MORAL Laws with Penalties are made for the Government of the Simple and the Weak like Cobwebs to Catch Flies but Power is the Law of Laws and there 's no Disputing with it but upon the Swords Point REFLEXION Tyranny and Oppression never wanted either a Plea or an Advocate for whatever they did for the Majority of the Lawyers the Divines and All Quaestuary Professions will be sure to run over to the Stronger Side where Will passes for Law and Rapine for Providence So that it is a Folly next to Madness for a Friendless and an Unarmed Innocence to Expostulate with an Invincible Power The Case of the Hare and the Eagle is a Common Case in the World where the Weaker is a Prey to the Stronger where a Forcible
Distinguishes us from Brutes as the due Exercise and Application of those Rational Faculties that Heaven has Bestow'd upon us Which comes to the very case of the Sheep and the Doctors Man knows what he Ought to do but to his Greater Condemnation he does not Act according to his Knowledge whereas Animals that are Guided barely by Instinct live in Obedience to the Voice of Heaven in that of Nature FAB CCCCLXXXVI Few Friends ONe that had a Great Honour for Socrates took Notice of a Pitiful Little House that he was a Building 'T is a strange Thing says he to the Philosopher that so Great a Man as you are should ever think of Living in so Wretched a Cabin Well says Socrates And yet as Little as it is he were a Happy Man that had but True Friends enough to Fill it The MORAL A Friend in the World is quite Another Thing then a Friend in the Schools And there 's a Great Difference in the Speculation of a Friend from what we find in the Practice REFLEXION Friendship is a Divine Excellency wrapt up in a Common Name and nothing less then the uttermost Perfection of Flesh and Blood for Wisdom and Virtue can Entitle a Man to the Character of a True Friend though Custom I know has so far Prevail'd for a Promiscuous Application of the Word to Common Acquaintances and Relations that it passes in the World by a certain kind of Figure for Civility and Respect But Socrates all this while did very well Understand what he said touching the Rarity and Paucity of Friends and he might have added that it is as hard a matter how to Understand to Be a Friend as to know where to Find One FAB CCCCLXXXVII An Ass Carrying an Image AS an Ass was Carrying an Image in Procession the People fell every where down upon their Knees before him This Silly Animal fancy'd that they Worship'd Him all this while 'till One Rounded him in the Ear and told him Friend says he You are the very same Ass with this Burden upon your Back that you were before you took it up and 't is not the Brute they Bowe to but the Image The MORAL A Publick Character is never the less to be Reverenc'd because a Coxcomb perhaps may Carry it nor that Coxcomb one jot the more save only for the sake of his Office REFLEXION THE Simple Vanity of this Ass is a very Pertinent Reproof to those Men that take the Honour and Respect that is done to the Character they Sustain to be paid to the Person as if Mr. Constable should Assume to his Visage the Reverence that 's paid to his Commission There are that Interpret every Nod or Glance of Civility in their own Favour though it was neither Due to them nor ever Intended them FAB CCCCLXXXVIII A Dog and a Cat. THere was a Dog and a Cat brought up in the same House from a Whelp and a Kittling and never were Two Creatures better together so Kind so Gamesome and Diverting that it was half the Entertainment of the Family to see the Gamboles and Love-Tricks that pass'd betwixt them Only it was Observ'd that still at Meal-times they would be Snarling and Spitting at One Another under the Table And what was the whole Sum of the Controversy at last but a Dog-and-Cat-Wrangle about the Picking of a Bone or the Licking of a Trencher The MORAL Flesh and Blood does Naturally Consult its own Advantage and when that comes to be the Question There 's the Bone that in some Degree or other sets all Mortals together by the Ears REFLEXION HERE 's a Perfect Emblem of the Practices and Friendships of the World for Men have their Toying Seasons and their Pleasant Humours as well as Dogs and Cats We Contract Little Likings 〈◊〉 enter into Agreeable Conversations and pass away the time so Merâ—…ly and Kindly together at least while that Fit of Dalliance and Diversion Lasts that one would think it impossible for any thing under the Sun to Break the Intrigue and yet upon the throwing in any Cross Interest among 'em which is all One with the Bone under the Table nay upon a Jealous Thought or a Mistaken Word or Look all former Bonds are Cancell'd the League Broken and the Farce Concludes in Biting and Scratching one another's Eyes out The same Figure will serve for Princes and States Publick Persons and Private Marry'd and Single People in fine of all Professions and Pretences FAB CCCCLXXXIX Aristotle's Definition of a Tyrant THere was so great Offence taken at the Definition of a Tyrant in Aristotle's Politicks that all the Governors under the Cope of Heaven found themselves Touch'd in the Reflexion Insomuch that they all Met in a General Council to take the Matter into Consideration Those Princes says Aristotle are Tyrants that intend their own Good more then that of their Subjects The Princes were so Nettled at the Scandal of this Affront that every Man took it to Himself for according to that Doctrin all the Governors upon the Face of the Earth from Adam to this Day have been no better then Downright Tyrants The Council was once Thinking to put Aristotle to Extremities but imputing it rather to the Natural Sawcyness of a Pedant for there 's no Grammar for Politicks then to any Malice Prepense they made him Eat his Words and Expound Himself that what he said of Tyrants was only meant of a sort of Persecutors of Old Time that have been now long since Extinct The MORAL In all General Characters of Bad Men whether Princes Publick Ministers or Private Persons Care should be taken not to Involve the Good under the same Scandal and Condemnation There are some Principles and Methods of Government wherein the Best and the Worst of Princes may Agree but then there are certain Perverse Notions of the Thing and Corrupt Practices that can hardly be Touch'd upon without Engaging all Crown'd Heads in the Reproach And 't is Dangerous Skewing upon the Errors of the Age a Man lives in REFLEXION THIS Fancy gives us to Understand that Secrets of State are not properly the Bus'ness of the Schools and in truth it is a Topick too that does as little become the Pulpit for Politicks are matter of Practice rather then of Notion Beside that the Rules of Government and those of Religion Abstractedly consider'd have very little Affinity one with the other For the Wisdom of this World or that which we call Civil Prudence does not at all concern it self in the Question of Virtue or of Conscience From hence it may be Inferr'd that Ministers of State Priests and Philosophers should do well to keep to their Respective Professions without Invading the Province one of another Here 's a Check put upon the Definition of a Tyrant not so much for the False Doctrin of the Position as for the Scandal of Exposing Majesty by the Innuendo of so Irreverend a Truth for the Character of a Crown'd Head ought to be