The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Quartus/Fable 6
¶ The vi fable is of the bochers and of the whethers
Hanne a lygnage or kynred is indyfferent
or indyuysyon / not
lyghtly they shalle doo ony thynge
to theyr salute / as reherceth to vs
this fable / Of a bocher whiche
entryd within a stable full of whethers / And after
as the whethers sawe hym / none of them sayd
one word / And the bocher toke the fyrst that
he fonde / ¶ Thenne the whethers spake al to
gyder and sayd / lete him doo what he wylle /
And thus the bocher tooke him all one after
another sauf one onely / And as he wold haue
taken the last / the poure whether sayd to hym /
Iustly I am worthy to be take / by cause I haue
not holpen my felawes / For he that wylle not
helpe ne comforte other / ought not to demaunde
or aske helpe ne comforte / For vertue whiche is
vnyed is better than vertue separate