Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/186

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directly Bible-Mad, and up to the Ears sſtill in the Dark Prophets, and the Revelation. In the Year 1688, When the Original Contracters were met in Councel abont Settling the Government, a very good Poor Woman carried her Little Trunks and Boxes to Weld-Houſe for Protection, for fear of the Mobile. The Houſe was Rifled, and her Trinkets went away with the Reſt. Upon this Loſs ſhe fell Idle Headed; and to This very Day the ſtands like the Bramble in the Fable, neare the place ſtill, (where the Innocent Creature Lives) Catching of People by the Coats, and Asking them about her Trunks and Boxes: Pray, ſays ſhe, When ſhall I have my Things again? My Trunks are not come home yet, &c. The Doctrine upon the Whole is no more then This, That we are not to ſet our Hearts upon the Things of This World; for All Emotions of the Mind have ſomewhat in them of the Freake; and the only Way to be Happy and Quiet, is to make all Contingencies Indifferent to us.

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Fab. CXLV.

A Lark in a Net.

A Poor Lark Enter'd into a Miſerable Expoſtulation with a Bird-Catcher, that had Taken her in his Net, and was juſt about to put her to Death. Alas (ſays ſhe) What am I to Dye for now? I am no Thief; I have Stoln neither Gold, nor Silver; but for Making Bold with One Pityful Grain of Corn am I now to Suffer.

The Moral.

'Tis to no Purpoſe to ſtand Reaſoning where the Adverſary is both Party and Judge.

REFLEXION.

‘Tis a Folly, ſays the Old Moral, for People to run Great Hazard for ſmall Advantage. And why may it not as well Reflet upon the Cruelty of taking away the Life of a Poor Innocent Creature for making bold with One Miferable Grain of Corn, when ſhe was Hungry. But This is All Fore'd, and in Truth, it is a Dry Fable with Little or Nothing in't, Or to Turn it Another Way yet, Here’s the Life of a Poor Creature in Queſtion, and the Lark Expoſtulates, and Pleades Not Guilty, but the Belly has No Eares, and the Bird-Catcher is ſo Intent upon his Intereſt, and Appetite, that he gives no Heed at all to the Equity of the Plea, which is but according to the Courſe of the World, when people Meaſure Right or Wrong by the Rule of their Own Profit or Loſs. 'Tis Paſſion and Partiality that Govern in All Theſe Caſes.

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Fab. CXLVI.

A Miller Burying his Gold.

A Certain Covetous, Rich Churle Sold his Whole Eſtate, and put it into Mony, and then Melted down That Mony again into One Maſs, which he Bury'd in the ground, with his veryHeart