Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCI
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 Worlted by an Insect.
The MORAL.
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. 'Tis Highly Improvident not to Obviate small Things; and as Ridiculous to be Baffled by them; and it is not the Force neither, but the Importumty 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 our 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.