Part 4 (1/2)

Jove, like a tender master, fond to save, His weakness pityed, and his fault forgave.

MORAL.

He, who presumes the ways of heaven to scan, Is not a wise, nor yet a happy man: In this firm truth securely we may rest,-- Whatever Providence ordains is best; Had man the power, he'd work his own undoing; To grant his will would be to cause his ruin.

FABLE XXIII.

THE VAIN JACKDAW.

A CERTAIN Jackdaw was so proud and ambitious that, not contented to live within his own sphere, he picked up the feathers which fell from the Peac.o.c.ks, stuck them among his own, and very confidently introduced himself into an a.s.sembly of those beautiful birds. They soon found him out, stripped him of his borrowed plumes, and falling upon him with their sharp bills, punished him as his presumption deserved.

Upon this, full of grief and affliction, he returned to his old companions, and would have flocked with them again; but they, knowing his late life and conversation, industriously avoided him, and refused to admit him into their company; and one of them, at the same time, gave him this serious reproof: ”If, friend, you could have been contented with your station, and had not disdained the rank in which nature had placed you, you had not been used so scurvily by those amongst whom you introduced yourself, nor suffered the notorious slight which we now think ourselves obliged to put upon you.”

MORAL.

Great evils arise from vanity; for when we try to place ourselves in a position for which we are not fit, we are liable to be laughed at, and, when we would return to our former state, we find we have lost the esteem of our former friends.

FABLE XXIV.

THE VIPER AND THE FILE.

A VIPER, crawling into a smith's shop to seek for something to eat, cast her eyes upon a File, and darting upon it in a moment, ”Now I have you,” said she, ”and so you may help yourself how you can; but you may take my word for it that I shall make a fine meal of you before I think of parting with you.” ”Silly wretch!”

said the File, as gruff as could be, ”you had much better be quiet, and let me alone; for, if you gnaw for ever, you will get nothing but your trouble for your pains. Make a meal of me, indeed! why, I myself can bite the hardest iron in the shop; and if you go on with your foolish nibbling I shall tear all the teeth out of your spiteful head before you know where you are.”

MORAL.

Take care that you never strive with those who are too strong for you, nor do spiteful things, lest you suffer for it.

FABLE XXV.

THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.

One hot, sultry day, a Wolf and a Lamb happened to come just at the same time to quench their thirst in the stream of a clear, silver brook, that ran tumbling down the side of a rocky mountain. The Wolf stood upon the higher ground, and the Lamb at some distance from him down the current. However, the Wolf, having a mind to pick a quarrel with him, asked him what he meant by disturbing the water, and making it so muddy that he could not drink, and at the same time demanded satisfaction. The Lamb, frightened at this threatening charge, told him, in a tone as mild as possible, that, with humble submission, he could not conceive how that could be, since the water which he drank ran down from the Wolf to him, and therefore it could not be disturbed so far up the stream. ”Be that as it will,” replies the Wolf, ”you are a rascal; and I have been told that you treated me with ill-language behind my back about half a year ago.” ”Upon my word,” says the Lamb, ”the time you mention was before I was born.” The Wolf finding it to no purpose to argue any longer against truth, fell into a great pa.s.sion, snarling and foaming at the mouth, as if he had been mad; and, drawing nearer to the Lamb, ”Sirrah,” said he, ”if it was not you, it was your father, and that's all one.” So he seized the poor innocent, helpless thing, tore it to pieces, and made a meal of it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.]

MORAL.