Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/263

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Anianus's FABLES.
201


The Moral.

Unequal Fellowſhips and Alliances are Dangerous. Not but that Great and Small, Hard, and Brittle, Rich and Poor, may ſort Well enough together ſo long as the Good Humour Laſts; but wherever there are Men there will be Claſhing ſome time or other, and a Knock, or a Conteſt Spoils All.

REFLEXION.

THERE an be no True Friendſhip, properly ſo Call’d but betwixt Equals. The Rich and the Poor, the Strong and the Weak will never agree together: For there's Danger on the One ſide, and None on the Other, and 'tis the Common Intereſt of All Leagues and Societies, to have the Reſpective Parties Neceſſary to One Another. And there needs no Ill Will, or Malice neither, to do the Miſchief, but the Diſparity, or Diſproportion Alone is enough to do the Work. The ſame Quantity of Wine that makes One Man Drunk, will not Quench Another Man's Thirſt. The ſame Expence that breaks One Man's Back is not a Flea-biting to Another: Wherefore, Men ſhould ſort themſelves with their Equals; for a Rich Man that Converſes upon the Square with a Poor Man, ſhall as certainly Undoe him, as a Braſs Pot ſhall break an Earthen One, if they Meet and Knock together.




Fab. CCXXX.

Good Luck and Bad Luck.

THere was a Middling ſort of a Man that was left well enough to paſs by his Father, but could never think he had enough, ſo long as any Man had more, He took Notice what Huge Eſtates many Merchants got in a very ſhort Time; and ſo Sold his Inheritance, and betook himſelf to a way of Traffique and Commerce. Matters ſucceeded ſo Wonderfully well with him, that Every body was in Admiration to ſee how Mighty Rich he was grown all on a Sudden. Why Ay, ſays he, This 'tis for a Man to Underſtand his Bus'neſs; for I have done All This by my Induſtry. It would have been well if he had ſtopt there: But Avarice is Inſatiable, and ſo he went Puſhing on ſtill for More; till, what by Wrecks, Bankrupts, Pyrates, and I know not how many other Diſappointments, One upon the Neck of Another, he was reduc’d in Half the Time that he was a Riſing, to a Morſel of Bread. Upon Theſe Miſ carriages, People were at him over, and over again,to