Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCXLIX
Fab. CCXLIX.
An Oxe and a Heifer.
A Wanton Heifer that had little Else to do then to Frisk up and down in a Meadow, at Ease and Pleasure, came up to a Working Oxe with a Thousand Reproaches in her Mouth; Bless me, says the Heifer, what a Difference there is betwixt your Coat and Condition, and Mine! Why, What a Gall’d Nasty Neck have we here! Look ye, Mines as Clean as a Penny, and as smooth as Silk I warrant ye. 'Tis a Slavish Life to be Yoak’d thus, and in Perpetual Labour. What would you give to be as Free and as Easy now as I am? The Oxe kept These Things in his Thought, without One Word in Answer at present; but seeing the Heifer taken up a While after for a Sacrifice: Well Sister, says he, and have not you Frisk’d fair now, when the Ease and Liberty you Valu’d your self upon, has brought you to This End?
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
THERE was never any thing gotten by Sensuality and Sloth, either in Matter of Profit or of Reputation, whereas an Active, Industrious Life, carries not only Credit and Advantage, but a Good Conscience also along with it. The Lazy, the Voluptuous, the Proud, and the Delicate are Struck at in This Fable: Men that Set their Hearts only upon the Present, without either Entring into the Reason, or looking forward into the End of Things: Little Dreaming that all this Pomp of Vanity, Plenty, and Pleasure, is but a Fattening of them for the Slaughter. 'Tis the Case of Great and Rich Men in the World; the very Advantages they Glory in are the Cause of their Ruine. The Heifer that Valu’d it self upon a Smooth Coat, and a Plump Habit of Body was taken up for a Sacrifice; but the Oxe that was Despis’d for his Drudgery, and his Raw-Bones, went on with his Work still in the Way of a Safe and an Honest Labour.