the Innocency and Simplicity of Youth. For Examples of Vices, or Weakneſſles, have the ſame Effect upon Children, with Examples of Vertue; Nay it holds in Publique too as well as in Private, that the Words and Actions of our Superiors have the Authority and Force of a Recommendation. Regis ad Exemption, is ſo True, that ‘tis Morally Impoſſible to have a Sober People under a Mad Government. For where Lewdneſſ is the Way to Preferment, Men are Wicked by Intereſt, as well by Imitation: But to Return to the Streſs of the Fable, Let a Gooſe Walk like a Gooſe, and leave Nature to do her Own Bus'neſs her Own Way,
Fab. CCXXIII.
The Sun and the Wind.
THere happen’d a Controverſy betwixt the Sun and the Wind, which was the Stronger of the Two; and they put the Point upon This Iſſue: There was a Traveller upon the Way, and which of the Two could make That Fellow Quit his Cloak ſhould carry the Cauſe. The Wind feil preſently a Storming, and threw Hail-Shot over and above in the very Teeth of him. The Man Wraps himſelf up, and keeps Advancing ſtill in ſpight of the Weather: But This Guſt in a ſhort Time Blew over; and then the Sun Brake out, and fell to Work upon him with his Beams; but ſtill he Puſhes forward, Sweating, and Panting, till in the End he was forc’d to Quit his Cloak, and lay himſelf down upon the Ground in a Cool Shade for his Relief: So that the Sun, in the Concluſion, carry’d the Point.
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
'TIS a Part of Good Diſcretion in All Conteſts, to Conſider over and over, the Power, the Strength, and the Intereſt of our Adverſary; and likewiſe again, that though One Man may be more Robuſt then Another, That Force may be Baffled yet by Skill and Addreſs. It is in the Bus'neſs of Life as it is in a Storm, or a Calm at Sea: The Blaſt may be Impetuous; but ſeldom laſts long; and though the Veſſel be Preſs'd never ſo Hard, a Skilful Steers-man will yet bear up againſt it: But in a Dead Calm, a Man loſes his Spirits, and lies in a Manner Expos’d, as the Scorn and Spectacle of Ill Fortune.
FAB.
