Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable C
Fab. C.
An Old Man and a Lyon.
A Person of Quality dream't one Night that he saw a Lyon Kill his only Son: Who was, it seems, a Generous Cavalier, and a Great Lover of the Chace. This Phansy ran in the Father's Head, to that Degree, that he Built his Son a House of Pleasure, on purpose to keep him out of Harms Way; and spar'd neither Art nor Cost to make it a Delicious Retreate. This House, in short, was to be the Young Man’s Prison, and the Father made himself his Keeper. There were a World of Paintings Every where up and down, and among the Rest, there was the Picture of a Lyon; which stirred the Bloud of the Young Man, for the Dream sake, and to think that he should now be a Slave for the Phansy of such a Beast. In this Indignation he made a Blow at the Picture; but Striking his Fist upon the Point of a Nayle in the Wall, His Hand Cancerated; he fell into a Fever, and soon after Dy'd on’t: So that all the Father's Precaution could not Secure the Son from the Fatality of Dying, by a Lyon.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
'Tis to no Purpose to think of Preventing, or Diverting Fatalitics: Especially where the Event looks like the Punishment of a Superstition: as it fares with Those that Govern their Lives by Forebodings and Dreames: or the Signs of Ill Luck, as we use to say: They are still Anxious and Uneasic, History is full of Examples to Illustrate the Doctrine of This Fable. The Father was to blame for laying so much Stress upon a Foolish Dream, and the Son was Little less to Blame, for being so much Transported at the Impression of That Fancy upon the Father: But they were Both Justly Punished however, The One for his Passion, and the Other for his Superstition.