Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/255

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Anianus's FABLES.
193


The Moral.

Nothing can be either Safe, or Eaſy, that’s Unnatural.

REFLEXION.

THIS ſhews us, how Unnatural a Vanity it is, for a Creature that was Made for One Condition, to Aſpire to Another. The Tortoiſe's Place was upon the Sands, not among the Stars; and if he had kept to his Station, he would have been in No Danger of Falling. Many a Fool has Good Councel Offer'd him, that has not either the Wit, or the Grace to Take it ; and his Willfulneſs commonly Ends in his Ruine.

Every thing in Nature has it’s Appointed Place, and Condition, and there's No putting a Force upon any thing, contrary to the Biaſs and Intent of it's Inſtiſution. What Bus’neſs has a Tortoriſe among the Clouds? Or why may not the Earth it ſelf as well Covet a Higher Place, as any Creature that's Confin'd to't? It is, in ſhort, a Silly, an Extravagant, and in Truth, ſo Impious a Fancy, that there can hardly be a Greater Folly then to Wish, or but ſo much as to Suppoſe it: But there's an Ambition in Mean Creatures, as well as in Mean Souls. So many Ridiculous Upſtarts as we find Promoted in the World, we may Imagine to be ſo many Tortoriſes in the Air; and when they have Flutter’d there a While, like Paper-Kites, for the Boys to ſtare at, He that took them up, grows either Aſham'd, or Weary of them, and ſo lets them Drop again; and, with the Devil Himſelf, e'en leaves them where he found them. ‘This may ſerve to put a Check to the Vanity and Folly of an Unruly Ambition; that's Deaf, not only to the Advice of Friends, but to the Councels and Monitions of the very Spirit of Reaſon it ſelf: For Flying without Wings is All one with Working without Means. We ſee a Thouſand Inſtances in the World, Every jot as Ridiculous as This in the Fable. That is to ſay of Men that are Made for One Condition, and yet Affect Another. What Signifies the Fiction of Phaeton in the Chariot of the Sun? The Frog vying Bulk with an Oxe; or the Tortoriſe Riding upon the Wings of the Wind; but to Preſcribe Bounds and Meaſures to our Exorbitant Paſſions; and at the ſame time, to thew us upon the Iſſue, that All Unnatural Pretenſions are Attended with a Certain Ruine?




Fab. CCXXI.

An Old Crab and a Young.

CHild, (ſays the Mother) You muſt Uſe your ſelf to Walk Streight, without Skewing, and Shailing ſo Every ſtep you ſet: Pray Mother (ſays the Young Crab) do but ſet the Example your ſelf, and I'll follow ye.

FAB.