Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCCXLIII
Fab. CCCXLII.
A Nightingale and a Hawk.
AS a Nightingale was Singing in a Bush, down comes a Rascally Kite of a Sparrow-Hawk, and Whips her off the Bough: The Poor Wretch Pleaded for her self, that alas! her Little Carcass was not worth the While, and that there were Bigger Birds enough to be found. Well, says the Hawk, but am I so Mad d’ye think, as to Part with a Little Bird that I have, for a Great One that I have Not? Why then, says she, I'll give ye a Delicate Song for my Life: No, no, says the Hawk, I want for my Belly, not for my Ears.
The MORAL.
A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush.
REFLEXION.
THIS Fable carries Three Morals. 1st. That we are not to Part with a Certainty for an Uncertainty. 2dly, That Men of Appetite are not Mov'd by any Consideration of Vertue. 3dly, That Things of Use and Necessity, are to be preferr'd before Matters meerly of Delight and Pleasure.
The Nightingale in the Foot of the Hawk, is the Case of many an Innocent Creature in the Hands of Justice, when the very Equity of the Law Bends under the Weight of an Over-ruling Rigour. The Belly has no Ears, and so there’s no Charming of it. Arguments against Power, are but Wind, when Reason draws One way, and Appetite Another. There’s no Moving of any Creature contrary to the Nature of it, Hang ‘em All up (says a Pleasant Droll, upon Venners Rifing) they are not Worth the Begging. 'Tis a piece of State-Policy sometimes, to let the Poor and the Friendless go to Pot; Nay, and to reckon the Execution of them among the Triumphs of Justice too. There is This further in’t besides; that the Uttermost Severity upon Those that have not where-withal to Bid for their Lives, raises the Price of the Market upon Those that Have; and Enhances the Value of the Deliverance, or, in Plain Engish, of the Pardon. The Poor Nightingale had Nothing to give that the Hawk car'd for, and so the Dy'd, in truth, because she was not worth the Begging.