Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCLXII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. CCLXII.

A Country-man and an Ass.

AS a Country-man was Grazing his Ass in a Meadow, comes a Hot Alarum that the Enemy was just falling into their Quarters. The Poor Man calls presently to his Ass, in a Terrible Fright, to Scoure away as fast as he could Scamper: for, says he, we shall be Taken else. Well, quoth the Ass, and what if we should be Taken? I have One Pack-Saddle upon my Back already, will they Clap Another a top of that d'ye Think? I can but be a Slave wherever I am: So that Taken, or not Taken, 'tis all a Case to Me.

The MORAL.

It's some Comfort for a Body to be so Low that be cannot fall: And in such a Condition already that cannot well be Worse. If a Man be Born to be a Slave, no matter to what Master.

REFLEXION.

HERE’s a Fiction of an Alarm, and we'll suppose it to be a False One too; for the Inventer has not Determin'd the Point. Now the Fancy will have more Force and Quickness in’t that Way, then T’other; and the Asses Reasoning upon the Case, will hold good both Ways alike: Only the Asses in the Moral are more Frightful then the Asses in the Fable. We shall be Taken else, is the Song of All Popular Male-Contents, when they design a Change of Government: And so they Hurry the Mobile Headlong, upon the very Dread of Imaginary Chains and Shackles, into the Slavery they Fear'd: But some Asses are Wiser then Others; for the Multitude would Answer their Masters else in the One Instance, as the Animal here in the Emblem Answer'd His, in the Other: , Here was no Scampering away, at a Venture, without Fear, or Wit; No Sollicitous Enquiry whether the News was True or No: But the Mythologist has prudently, and for our Instruction, Cast those Two Circumstances out of the Question, and laid the Stress of it upon This single Issue. As who should say; In all Governments there must be Burdens to be Born, and People to Bear them: And who so Proper to bear Those Burdens, as Those that Providence and Policy have Appointed and Design’d: for that Office and Station? So that 'tis all one to the Common People who's Uppermost (That is to say, upon the Matter of Ease and Liberty) for Asses must be Asses still whoever Rides them; And Providence will keep: the World in Order full, whoever Grumbles at it.