Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/289

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Abstemius's FABLES.
227



Fab. CCLX.

A Pigeon and a Pye.

A Pye was Wond'ring once to a Pigeon, why ſhe would Breed ſtill in the ſame Hole, when her Young Ones were conſtantly taken away from her before they were able to fly. Why That's my Simplicity, ſays the Pigeon, I mean no Harm, and I ſuſpect None.


The MORAL.

Do as You would be done by, is a Better Rule in the Doctrine, then in the Practice: For Truſt as you would be Truſted, will not hold betwixt a Knave and an Honeſt Man. There's no Dealing with a Sharper but at his Own Play.

REFLEXION.

THE Truer Hearted any Man is, the more Lyable is he to be Impos'd upon: And then the World calls it Out-witting of a Man; when, in truth, he’s only Out-knav’d: And obligd, even in Charity and Good Nature, to Believe till he be Couzen’d. And we find the Country-man's Obſervation Confirm'd by Daily Experience. This does not yet Hinder a ſincere Singleneſs of Heart from being a Vertue ſo neceſſary for the Comfort and Security of Mankind, that Humane Society cannot ſubſiſt without it. And therefore 'tis a Thouſand Pities it ſhould be ſo Diſcountenanc'd, and Abus'd, as in the Common Practice of the World we find it is. But it ſtands Firm however to the ſame Tenor of Life, As the Pigeon kept ſtill to the ſame Hole to lay her Eggs in what'ere ſhe Loſt by't.



Fab. CCLXI.

A Cuckow and a Hawk.

BY the Beak, and the Claws of a Cuckow, one would take her for a kind of Hawk; only the One Lives upon Worms, and the Other upon Fleſh: Inſomuch that a Hawk Twitted a Cuckow One day with her Courſe Way of Feeding. If you'l Look like a Hawk, Why don’t you Live like a Hawk? The Cuckow took This a little in Dudgeon; but paſſing by a Pigeon-Houſe ſome ſhort time after, what ſhould ſhe ſee but the Skin of This very Hawk upon a Pole, on the Top of the Dove-Houſe