Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CLXXV
Fab. CLXXV.
A Fox and a Crab.
A Fox that was Sharp-set, Surpriz’d a Crab, as he lay out of the Sea upon the Sands, and Carry’d him away. The Crab, when he found that he was to be Eaten, Well (says he) This comes of Meddling where we have Nothing to do; for My Bus’ness lay at Sea, not upon the Land.
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
EVERY Man has his Post Assign’d him, and in That Station he is Well, if he can but Think himself so; and He that cannot keep himself Well, when he is Well, may Thank Himself: But Men of Curiosity and Levity can never be at Rest; for let their Present State be what it will, it never Pleases them. They have a Sickly Uneasiness upon them, which Way soever they lye, or in what Condition soever they are; no Place, no Posture, no State, either of Life or of Fortune agrees with ‘em, but they run-on, Shifting, and Changing, from One Error, and from One Qualm,to Another; Hankering after Novelties, and Trying New Experiments. We are Naturally given to be Peeping into Forbidden Secrets, and Groping in the Dark after we know not what. We never Think of the Main Bus'ness of Life, till a Vain Repentance Minds us of it at the Wrong End on't,and then, with the Crab in the Fable, we find that we have been Doing of One thing All this while, when We should have been Doing Another; and Abandoned the Station that God and Nature Allotted us, to our Irreparable Ruine.