Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCCCXX
Fab. CCCCXX.
Hungry Dogs, and a Raw-hide.
A Company of Hungry Curs Discover’d a Raw-Hide in the Bottom of a River, and lay'd their Heads together how to come at it: They Canvass'd the matter one way and ‘tother, and brought it to this Issue in the Conclusion, that the only way to get it, was to Drink their way to't. So they fell to Lapping and Guzzling, 'till in one Word, they Burst themselves, and never the nearer.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
Foolish Counsel is not only Vain and Unprofitable in General, but in many particular Cases most Destructive and Deadly. This Fable lays open the Folly, the Vanity, and the Danger of Pressing too eagerly for any thing that's out of our Reach. We spend our Strength, and our Credit in clearing the way to't, and it flies before us like a Shadow, which we may well Pursue, but can never Overtake. It is much the Humour of Chymists, and a Thousand other sorts of Projectors, that propose to themselves things utterly Impracticable, and out consume their Lives in Hopeless and Fruitless Undertakings. This falls out for want of Computing upon the Proportion betwixt the Means, and the End; and for want of Examining and Considering what's Praccticable, and what not; and for want again of Measuring our Force and Capacity with our Designs.