FABLE CV.
THE FORESTER AND THE LION.]
The Forester meeting with a Lion one day, they discoursed together forawhile without differing much in opinion. At last, a dispute happeningto arise about the superiority between a Man and a Lion, the Man,wanting a better argument, showed the Lion a marble monument, on whichwas placed the statue of a man striding over a vanquished Lion.--'Ifthis,' says the Lion, 'is all you have to say for it, let us be thecarvers, and we will make the Lion striding over the Man.'
APPLICATION.
Contending parties are very apt to appeal for the truth to recordswritten by their own side; but nothing is more unfair, and at the sametime insignificant and unconvincing. Such is the partiality of mankindin favour of themselves and their own actions, that it is almostimpossible to come at any certainty by reading the accounts which arewritten on one side only. We have few or no memoirs come down to us ofwhat was transacted in the world during the sovereignty of ancient Rome,but what were written by those who had a dependency upon it; thereforeit is no wonder that they appear, upon most occasions, to have been sogreat and glorious a nation. What their contemporaries of othercountries thought of them we cannot tell, otherwise than from their ownwriters: it is not impossible but they might have described them as abarbarous, rapacious, treacherous, unpolite people; who, upon theirconquest of Greece, for some time, made as great havoc and destructionof the arts and sciences, as their fellow plunderers, the Goths andVandals, did afterwards in Italy. What monsters would our ownparty-zealots make of each other, if the transactions of the times wereto be handed down to posterity by a warm hearty man on either side! and,were such records to survive two or three centuries, with whatperplexities and difficulties must they embarrass a young historian, asby turns he consulted them for the characters of his great forefathers!If it should so happen, it were to be wished this application might beliving at the same time that young readers, instead of doubting to whichthey should give their credit, would not fail to remember that this wasthe work of a man, that of a lion.
FABLE CVI.
THE STAG LOOKING INTO THE WATER.]
A Stag that had been drinking at a clear spring, saw himself in thewater: and, pleased with the prospect, stood afterwards for some timecontemplating and surveying his shape and features from head tofoot.--'Ah!' says he, 'what a glorious pair of branching horns arethere! how gracefully do those antlers hang over my forehead, and givean agreeable turn to my whole face! If some other parts of my body werebut proportionable to them, I would turn my back to nobody; but I have aset of such legs as really makes me ashamed to see them. People may talkwhat they please of their conveniencies, and what great need we stand inof them upon several occasions; but, for my part, I find them so veryslender and unsightly, that I had as lief have none at all.' While hewas giving himself these airs, he was alarmed with the noise of somehuntsmen, and a pack of hounds that had been just laid on upon thescent, and were making towards him. Away he flies, in someconsternation, and, bounding nimbly over the plain, threw dogs and menat a vast distance behind him. After which, taking a very thick copse,he had the ill-fortune to be entangled by his horns in a thicket; wherehe was held fast till the hounds came in and pulled him down. Findingnow how it was like to go with him, in the pangs of death he is said tohave uttered these words:--'Unhappy creature that I am! I am too lateconvinced, that what I prided myself in has been the cause of myundoing, and what I so much disliked was the only thing that could havesaved me.'
APPLICATION.
Perhaps we cannot apply this better than by supposing the fable to be aparable! which may be thus explained. The Deer, viewing itself in thewater, is a beautiful young lady at her looking-glass. She cannot helpbeing sensible of the charms which lie blooming in every feature of herface. She moistens her lips, languishes with her eyes, adjusts everylock of her hair with the nicest exactness, gives an agreeable attitudeto her whole body; and then, with a soft sigh, says to herself,--'Ah!how happy might I be, in a daily crowd of admirers, if it were not forthe censoriousness of the age! when I view that face, where Nature, togive her her due, has been liberal enough of charms, how easy should Ibe, if it were not for that slender particular, my honour. The odiousidea of that comes across all my happy moments, and brings amortification with it that damps my most flattering tender hopes. Oh!that there were no such thing in the world!'--In the midst of thesesoliloquies she is interrupted by the voice of her lover, who enters herchamber singing a rigadoon air; and, introducing his discourse in afamiliar easy manner, takes occasion to launch out in praise of herbeauty; sees she is pleased with it, snatches her hand, kisses it in atransport; and, in short, pursues his point so close, that she is notable to disengage herself from him. But, when the consequence of allthis approaches, in an agony of grief and shame, she fetches a deep sighand says--'Ah! how mistaken have I been! the virtue I slighted mighthave saved me; but the beauty I prized so much has been my undoing.'
FABLE CVII.
THE STAG AND THE OX-STALL.]
A Stag, roused out of his thick cover in the midst of the forest, anddriven hard by the hounds, made towards a farm-house, and seeing thedoor of an Ox-Stall open, entered therein, and hid himself under a heapof straw. One of the Oxen, turning his head about, asked him what hemeant by venturing himself in such a place as that was, where he wassure to meet with his doom?--'Ah!' says the Stag, 'if you will but be sogood as to favour me with your concealment, I hope I shall do wellenough; I intend to make off again the first opportunity.'--Well, hestaid there till towards night; in came the ox-man with a bundle offodder, and never saw him. In short, all the servants of the farm cameand went, and not a soul of them smelt any thing of the matter. Nay,the bailiff himself came according to form, and looked in, but walkedaway no wiser than the rest. Upon this the Stag, ready to jump out ofhis skin for joy, began to return thanks to the good-natured Oxen,protesting that they were the most obliging people he had ever met within his life. After he had done his compliments, one of them answered himgravely--'Indeed, we desire nothing more than to have it in our power tocontribute to your escape; but there is a certain person, you littlethink of, who has a hundred eyes; if he should happen to come, I wouldnot give this straw for your life.'--In the interim, home comes themaster himself, from a neighbour's, where he had been invited to dinner;and, because he had observed the cattle to look but scurvily of late, hewent up to the rack, and asked, why they did not give them more fodder?then, casting his eyes downward,--'Hey-day!' says he, 'why so sparing ofyour litter? pray scatter a little more here. And these cobwebs--but Ihave spoke so often, that unless I do it myself--' Thus, as he went on,prying into every thing, he chanced to look where the Stag's horns laysticking out of the straw; upon which he raised a hue-and-cry, calledall his people about him, killed the poor Stag, and made a prize of him.
APPLICATION.
The moral of this fable is, that nobody looks after a man's affairs sowell as he himself. Servants, being but hirelings, seldom have the trueinterest of their master at heart, but let things run on in a negligentconstant disorder; and this, generally, not so much for want of capacityas honesty. Their heads are taken up with the cultivation of their ownprivate interest; for the service and promotion of which that of theirmaster is postponed, and often entirely neglected.
Few families are reduced to poverty and distress merely by their ownextravagance and indulgence in luxury: the inattention of servantsswells every article of expense in domestic oeconomy; and the retinue ofgreat men, instead of exerting their industry to conduce as far aspossible to the increase of their master's wealth, commonly exercise noother office than that of locusts and caterpillars, to consume anddevour it.
FABLE CVIII.
THE DOVE AND THE ANT.]
The Ant, compelled by thirst, went to drink in a clear purling rivulet;but the current, with its circling eddy, snatched her away, and carriedher down the stream. The Dove, pitying her distressed condition, croppeda branch from a neighbouring tree, and let it fall
into the water, bymeans of which the Ant saved herself, and got ashore. Not long after, afowler having a design upon the Dove, planted his nets in due order,without the bird's observing what he was about; which the Antperceiving, just as he was going to put his design in execution, she bithim by the heel, and made him give so sudden a start, that the Dove tookthe alarm, and flew away.
APPLICATION.
One good turn deserves another; and gratitude is excited by so noble andnatural a spirit, that he ought to be looked upon as the vilest ofcreatures who has no sense of it. It is, indeed, so very just andequitable a thing, and so much every man's duty, that, to speak of itproperly, one should not mention it as any thing meritorious, or thatmay claim praise and admiration, any more than we should say a man oughtto be rewarded or commended for not killing his father, or forbearing toset fire to his neighbour's house. The bright and shining piece ofmorality, therefore, which is recommended to us in this fable, is setforth in this example of the Dove, who, without any obligation orexpectation, does a voluntary office of charity to its fellow creaturein distress. The constant uninterrupted practice of this virtue, is theonly thing in which we are capable of imitating the great Author of ourbeing; whose beloved Son, besides the many precepts he has given toenforce this duty, used this expression as a common saying, 'It is moreblessed to give than to receive.'
FABLE CIX.
THE LION IN LOVE.]
The Lion, by chance, saw a fair Maid, the forester's daughter, as shewas tripping over a lawn, and fell in love with her. Nay, so violent washis passion, that he could not live unless he made her his own; so that,without any more delay, he broke his mind to the father, and demandedthe damsel for his wife. The man, as odd as the proposal seemed atfirst, yet soon recollected, that by complying he might get the Lioninto his power; but, by refusing him, should only exasperate and provokehis rage. Therefore he consented; but told him it must be upon theseconditions: that, considering the girl was young and tender, he mustagree to let his teeth be plucked out, and his claws cut off, lest heshould hurt her, or at least frighten her, with the apprehension ofthem. The Lion was too much in love to hesitate; but was no soonerdeprived of his teeth and claws, than the treacherous forester attackedhim with a huge club, and knocked his brains out.
APPLICATION.
Of all the ill consequences that may attend that blind passion, love,seldom any prove so fatal as that one, of its drawing people into asudden and ill-concerted marriage. They commit a rash action in themidst of a fit of madness, of which, as soon as they come to themselves,they may find reason to repent as long as they live. Many an unthinkingyoung fellow has been treated as much like a savage, in this respect, asthe Lion in the fable. He has, perhaps, had nothing valuable belongingto him but his estate, and the writings which made his title to it; and,if he is so far captivated as to be persuaded to part with these, histeeth and his claws are gone, and he lies entirely at the mercy of madamand her relations. All the favour he is to expect, after this, is fromthe accidental goodness of the family he falls into; which, if it happento be of a particular strain, will not fail to keep him in a distantsubjection, after they have stripped him of all his power. Nothing but atrue friendship, and a mutual interest, can keep up reciprocal lovebetween the conjugal pair; and when that is wanting, and nothing butcontempt and aversion remain to supply the place, matrimony becomes adownright state of enmity and hostility: and what a miserable case hemust be in, who has put himself and his whole power into the hands ofhis enemy, let those consider, who, while they are in their sobersenses, abhor the thoughts of being betrayed into their ruin, byfollowing the impulse of a blind unheeding passion.
FABLE CX.
THE TORTOISE AND THE EAGLE.]
The Tortoise, weary of his condition, by which he was confined to creepupon the ground, and being ambitious to have a prospect, and look abouthim, gave out, that if any bird would take him up into the air, and showhim the world, he would reward him with a discovery of many preciousstones, which he knew were hidden in a certain place of the earth: theEagle undertook to do as he desired, and, when he had performed hiscommission, demanded the reward; but finding the Tortoise could not makegood his words, he stuck his talons into the softer parts of his body,and made him a sacrifice to his revenge.
APPLICATION.
As men of honour ought to consider calmly how far the things which theypromise may be in their power, before they venture to make promisesupon this account, because the non-performance of them will be apt toexcite an uneasiness within themselves, and tarnish their reputation inthe eyes of other people; so fools and cowards should be as little rashin this respect as possible, lest their impudent forgeries draw uponthem the resentment of those whom they disappoint, and that resentmentmakes them undergo smart, but deserved, chastisement. The man who is sostupid a knave as to make a lying promise where he is sure to bedetected, receives the punishment of his folly unpitied by all that knowhim.
FINIS.
Printed by C. WHITTINGHAM, Chiswick.
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Transcriber's note:
The header "Fable I" has been added.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been preserved except inobvious cases of typographical error.
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