Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCCLXXIV
Fab. CCCLXXIV.
A Fox and a Cat.
THere was a Question started betwixt a Fox and a Cat, which of the Two could make the best Shift in the World, if they were put to a Pinch. For my own part, (says Reynard, ) when the worst comes to the worst, I have a whole Budget of Tricks to come off with at last. At that very instant, up comes a Pack of Dogs full-Cry toward them. The Cat presently takes a Tree, and fees the Poor Fox torn to Pieces upon the very Spot. Well, (says Puss to her self,) One Sure Trick I find is better than a Hundred Slippery ones.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
One Double Practice may be disappointed by another; but the Gifts of Nature are beyond all the Shams and Shuffles in the World. There's as much difference betwixt Craft and Wisdom, as there is betwixt Philosophy and Slight of Hand. Shifting and Shufflling may serve for a Time, but Truth and Simplicity will most certainly carry it at the long run. When a Man of Trick comes once to be Detected, he's Lost, even to all Intents and Purposes: Not but that one Invention may in some Cases be Honestly Countermin'd with another. But this is to be said upon the whole matter, That Nature provides better for us, then we can do for our selves; and instructs every Creature more or less, how to shift for it self in cases of Ordinary Danger. Some bring themselves off by their Wings, others by their Heels, Craft or Strength. Some have their Cells or Hiding Places; and upon the Upshot, they do more by Vertue of a Common Instinct toward their own Preservation, then if they had the whole Colledge of the Virtnose for their Advisers. It was Nature in fine, that brought off the Cat, when the Foxes whole Budget of Inventions fail'd him.