Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/29
The Life of Æsop. 5
given me Now, of an insufferable Hatred and Contempt? Æsop said not one Word all This While; 'till Xanthus Rowz'd him with a Reproof. Oh Villain! says he; to have a Tonge and Wit at Will upon All other Occasions, and not one Diverting Syllable Now at a Pinch, to Pacify your Mistress! Æsop, after a short Pause upon't, Bolted out an old Greek Saying, which is in English to this Effect, From Lying at the Mercy of Fire, Water, and a Wicked woman, Good Lord Deliver us. If the Wife was heartily angry before, This Scomm made her Stark Mad, and the Reproche was so Cutting too, that Xanthus himself did not well know how to take it. But Æsop, brought himself off again from the Malice of ill Intention, by a Passage out of Euripides to this Purpose. The Raging of a Tempestuous Sea; The Fury of a Devouring Fire, and the Pinching Want of Necessaries for Life; are Three Dreadful Things, and a Body might reckon up a Thousand more; but all this is Nothing to the Terrible Violences of an Impetuous Woman, and therefore says he, Make your selfe as Glorious on the other side, in the Rank of Good Women. Vavasor the Jesuite, in his De Ludicrâ Dic͑tione, takes Notice of a Blunder here in the Chronology of the Story for Æsop was Murder'd at least Fourscore Yeares before Euripides was Born. But to follow the Thrid of the Relation; Upon this Oblique Admonition, the Woman came to her self again, and took Æsop into her good Graces, who render'd his Master and Mistress All the Offices of a Faithful Servant.
Some Two or Three Dayes after the Encounter above mentioned, Xanthus took Æsop a long with him to a Garden to buy some Herbs, and the Gard'ner seeing him in the Habit of a Philosopher, told him the Admiration he was in, to find how much faster Those Plants shot up that Grow of their own Accord, then Those that he set Himself, though he took never so much Care about them. Now you that are a Philosopher, Pray will you tell me the meaning of This? Xanthus had no better answer at hand, then to tell him, That Providence would have it so: Whereupon Æsop brake out into a Loud Laughter. Why how now Ye slave You, says Xanthus, what do you Laugh at? Æsop took
