put on all Appearances in Matter of Opinion, Practice and Pretence, Suitable to the Humour they are to Joyn withall: But ſtill Some Unlucky Accident or Other happens to Diſcover them in the End; and then, when they would go off again, the People of their Own Plume and Colour Beat ‘em away, and Refuſe to Entertain them. This is no more then what we find to be True in All Turns of State. Double-Dealers may Paſs Muſter for a While, but All Parties Waſh their Hands of them in the Concluſion.
Fab. CLXXII.
A Daw with a String at's foot.
A Country Fellow took a Daw and ty'd a String to his Leg; and ſo gave him to a Little Boy to Play withal. The Daw did not much like his Companion, and upon the Firſt Opportunity gave him the Slip, and away into the Woods again, where he was Shackled and Starv'd. When he came to Die, he Reflected upon the Folly of Expoſing his Life in the Woods, rather then Live in an Eaſie Servitude among Men.
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
MEN that are Impatient under Imaginary Afflictions, change commonly for Worſe, as the Daw did here in the Fable, that Threw himſelf into a Starving Neceſſity, rather then he would Submit to the Tolerable Inconvenience of an Eaſie Reſtraint. This was a Republican Daw, that Kaw'd for Liberty, not Underſtanding that he that Lives under the Bondage of Laws, is in a State of Freedom: And that Popular Liberty, when it paſſes Thoſe Bounds, is the moſt Scandalous Sort of Slavery. Nothing would ſerye him, but he muſt be at his Own Diſpoſal, and ſo away he goes, Carries his String along with him, and Shackles Himſelf This is juſt the Humour and the Fate of Froward Subjects. They Fancy themſelves Uneaſie under the Errors of a Male-adminiſtration of Government, when their Quarrel ſtrikes, in truth, at the very Root and Conditions of Government it ſelf. It is as Impoſſible for a Government to be without Faults, as for a Man to be ſo, But Faults or No Faults, It comes yet much to a Caſe; for where they cannot Find 'em, they can Create them; And there goes no more to’t neither, then the Calling of Neceſſary Juſtice by the Name of Oppreſſion. And what's the End on't, more then This now? They Run away from their Maſters into the Woods, and there with Æſop's Daw, they either Starve, or Hang Themſelves.
Jupiter
