Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/300

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before the Meſſenger can deliver his Errand: Would it not be Better, without going ſo far about, to Pray to Him that can Save us without Help? Upon This, they turn’d their Prayers to God Himſelf, and the Wind preſently fell.

The MORAL.

The Shorteſt, and the Sureſt Way of Doing Bus'neſſ is Beſt.

REFLEXION.

'TIS Good to be ſure, where our Salvation is at Stake; and to run no more Riſque of the Main Chance, then of Neceſſity Muſt. What needs any Man make his Court to the Servant when his Acceſs is Open to the Mafter? And eſpecially when that Maſter is as ready to Give, as the Petitioners to Ask. A Wiſe Man will take the Neareſt and the Sureſt Way to his Journy's End; and Commit no Bus'neſs of Importance to a Proxy, where he may do’t Himſelf.

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Fab. CCLXXIII.

The Fiſhes and the Frying-pan.

A Cook was Frying a Diſh of Live Fiſh, and ſo ſoon as ever they felt the Heat of the Pan. There's no Enduring of This, cry’d one, and ſo they all Leapt into the Fire; and inſtead of Mending the Matter, they were Worſe now then Before.

The MORAL.

The Remedy is many times Worſe then the Diſeaſe.

REFLEXION.

LET a Man's Preſent State be never ſo Uneaſy, he ſhould do well however to Bethink himſelf before he Changes, for fear his Next Remove ſhould be Worſe. Thus is according to the Common Underſtanding of the Alluſion, though not ſo Agreeable perhaps to the True Reaſon of the Caſe: For it was not either Levity, or Impatience; but intolerable Pain, and Abſolute Neceſſity, that made the Fiſh ſhift their Condition: So that the Moral would have born This Doctrine rather: That where we have Certain Death before us, and only This Choice, whether it ſhall be a Speedy or a Lingring Death, That which puts us ſooneſt out of our Pain (though never ſo Sharp) is the more Eligible of the Two. But to take itaccording