Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/223

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has Plac'd it. The Tame Aſs Wrought Hard, for his Fine Coat, and the Wild one Far’d Hard, to Bailance the Comfort of his Freedom.

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Fab. CXCI.

Aſſes to Jupiter.

THE Aſſes found themſelves once ſo Intolerably Oppreſſed, with Cruel Maſters, and Heavy Burdens, that they ſent their Ambaſſadors to Jupiter with a Petition for Redreſs. Jupiter found the Requeſt Unreaſonable, and ſo gave them This Anſwer, That Humane Society could not be Preſerv’d without Carrying Burdens ſome way or other: So that if the would but Joyn, and Piſs up a River, that the Burdens which they now Carry’d by Land might be carried by Water, they ſhould be Eas'd of That Grievance. This ſet them All a Piſſing Immediately, and the Humeur is kept upto This very Day, that whenever One Aſs Piſſes, the Reſt Piſs for Company.

The MORAL.

'Tis the Uttermoſt Degree of Madneſs and Folly, to Appeal from Providence and Nature.

REFLEXION.

THE Decrees and Appointments of Heaven are Unchangeable, and there’s no Contending. How many Popular Counter-parts of the Aſſes Petition to Jupiter for Redreſs of Grievances, have we liv'd to ſee within our own Memory, and all, for Things, not only Unreaſonable, but utterly Impoſſible. We read however in the Anſwer, the Quality, and the Reproach of the Prayer, which is Granted upon Conditions as Impracticable, as the Thing deſir'd is Ridiculous.

The Aſſes are here Comp'aining (after the Way of the Mobile) for being put to the very Uſe and Bus‘neſs they were Made for; as if it were Cruelty and Oppreſſion to Employ the Neceſſary Means, which God and Nature has given us, for the Attaining of Neceſſary Ends. If we Confound Higher and Lower, the World is a Chaos again, and a Level. Is not a Labourer as much a Tool of Providence as the Maſter-Builder? Are not the Meaneſt Artiſans, of the ſame Inſtitution with Miniſters of Counſel and State: The Head can no more be without the Body, then the Body without the Head; and neither of them without Hands and Feet to Defend, and Provide, both for the One, and for the Other. Government can no more Subſiſt without Subjection, then the Multitude can Agree without Government: And the Duty of Obeying, is no leſs of Divine Appointment, then the Authority of Commanding.

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