The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
THE Fancies of Poets, Painters, and Gravers, are No Evidences of Truth; for People are Partial in their Own Caſes, and Every Man will make the Beſt of his Own Tale. 'Tis againſt Common Equity for the ſame People to be both Parties and Judges, and That's the Caſe here betwixt the Man and the Lyon. Now the Lyon is much in the Right, that Characters, Pictures, and Images, are All as the Painter, the Carver, or the Statuary pleaſes; and that there's a Great Difference betwixt a Flight of Fancy, and the Hiſtory of Nature. 'Tis much Eaſier for a Man to make an Aſs of a Lyon upon a Pedeſtal, then in a Forreſt; and where it lies at his Choice, whether the Giant ſhall Kill the Squire, or the Squire the Giant. Argument is not the Work of the Chiſſel; neither does the Deſign of the Artiſt conclude the Truth of the Fact: But there is ſomewhat Heroical yet in the Imagination, though the Piece was never Drawn from the Life.
Fab. CCXLI.
A Boy and a Thief.
A Thief came to a Boy, that was Blubbering by the Side of a VVell, and Ask’d him what he cry’d for. VVhy, ſays he, the String’s Broke here, and I’ve dropt a Silver Cup into the VVell. The Fellow preſently Strips, and down he goes to ſearch for't. After a while, he comes up again, with his Labour for his Pains, and the Roguy Boy, in the Mean time, was run away with his Cloaths.
The MORAL.
Some Thieves are Ripe for the Gallows ſooner then Others.
RE-
