The Moral.
REFLECTION.
Saving the Incongruity of making the Aſs a Beaſt of Prey, we are to learn from hence the Danger of Unequal Alliances; where the Poor and the Weak lye at the Mercy of the Rich and the Powerful; and no Remedy but Patience and Reſignation.
People ſhould have a care how they Engage themſelves in Partnerſhips with Men that are too Mighty for them, whether it be in Mony, Pleaſure, or Bus’ness, Find out ſomething, says a Court-Minion, and then upon the Diſcovery, he lays hand on’t for himſelf. So Says, and ſo Does the Lion here to the Aſs and his Companions. Now this is only a Stateway of Fiſhing with Cormorants. Men in Power, Plunge their Clyents into the Mud, with a Ring about their Necks; So that let them bring up what they will, nothing goes down with them that they ſhall be ever the Better for. And when they come in Concluſion to Caſt up the Profit and Loss of the Purchaſe, or the Project; what betwixt Force, Intereſt, and Good Manners, the Adventurer ſcapes well if he can but get off at laſt with his Labor for his Pains.
Ambition, and the Inſatiable Thirſt of Mony, Greatneſs, and Glory, know no other Bounds of Justice or Confidence, than the Meaſure of a Corrupt Appetite. Services are paid with Smoak and Fair Words; and there goes a World of Unprofitable Ceremony to the Mortifying of an Honeſt Man. Promiſes and Proteſtations are only Paſſages of Courſe, and meer Expletives; that in the Conſtruction of Civility, and Good Breeding, ſignifie no more than [Your Humble Servant Sir.] All, in ſhort, that the Lion ſays and does, in this Inſtance, is but according to the Practice of Men in Power in a thouſand other Caſes.
Fab. VIII.
A Wolf and a Crane.
A Wolf had got a Bone in’s Throat, and could think of no better Inſtrument to Eaſe him out of it, than the Bill of a Crane; ſo he went and Treated with a Crane to help him out with it, upon Condition of a very conſiderable Reward for his pains. The Crane did him the Good Office, and then claim’d his Promiſe. Why how now Impudence! (ſays t’other) Do you put your head into the Mouth of a Wolf, and then, when y’ave brought it out again safe and sound, do you talk of a Reward? Why Sirrah, you have your Head again, and is not that a Sufficient Recompence?
