Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCCCLXXIII
Fab. CCCCLXXIII.
A Brother and a Sister.
There was a Brother and a Sister that happen’d to look in a Glass both together: The Brother a very Lovely Youth, and the Sister as hard favourd as a Girl could well be. Look ye (says the Boy,) and have not I a very Good Face now? This the Lass took for a Reproach, as if hers were not so too. What does this Envious Tit, bur away to her Father, with a Tale of her Brother, how Effeminately he Behav'd himself, and that a Petticoat would become him better then a Sword. The Good Man Kiss'd them both, and Reconciled the Controversy. My Dear Children, says he, I lay my Command upon ye Both to look often in a Glass; You Son, to keep a Guard upon your Self, not to Dishonour the Advantages that Nature has given ye, with Ill Manners: And you Daughter, (says he) to Mind you of Supplying the Defects of an External and a Transitory Beauty, with the more substantial Ornaments of Piety and Virtue.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
The Vanity of the Youth here in the Fable, is doubly to Blame; First, he values himself upon a Trivial and an Uncertain Advantage. Secondly, ‘Tis below the Dignity of the Sex, for a Man to Glory in, and to Usurp upon the proper Ornaments and Privileges of a Woman. The Sisters Envy may be better Reprov'd then Reform’d; for to say that a Woman is not Handsom, is a Sin never to be Forgiven. The Father does excellently well Discharge the Part of a Wise Man, and of a Tender Parent both in One. And the Moral of his Part Resolves finally into this, That Virtue attones for Bodily Defects, and that Beauty is nothing worth, without a Mind Answerable to the Person.