Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCXLVIII
Fab. CCXLVIII.
An Ape and her Two Brats.
THERE was an Ape that had Two Twins. She Doted upon One of them, and did not much Care for T’other. She took a sudden Fright once, and in a Hurry whips up her Darling under her Arm, and carries the Other a Pick-a-Pack upon her Shoulders. In This Haste and Maze, Down she comes, and beats out her Favourites Brains against a Stone; but That which she had at her Back came off Safe and Sound.
The MORAL.
Fondlings are Commonly Unfortunate.
REFLEXION.
PARTIALITY in a Parent is commonly Unlucky, if not a little Unnatural, for Fondlings are in danger to be made Fools, by the very Error of their Education, and we find it Experimentally that the Children that are least Cocker'd make the Best, and Wisest Men. ’Tis well to be Tender, but to set the Heart too much upon any thing, is what we cannot Justify, either in Religion, or in Reason. I was Saying that Partiality was a little Unnatural too. I do not mean a Partiality of Inclination; for we cannot Command our Likings, or our Aversions; but I speak of a Partiality that shews it self in a Distinguishing Preference of One to the Other, and therefore what Hankering Dispositions soever we may have, That Fondness should not Transport us beyond the Bounds of a Discreet Affection: And Other Circumstances apart, we should no more be Kinder to One Child then to Another, then we are Tender of One Eye more then of the Other; for they are Both our Own Flesh and Bloud alike. Children are Naturally Jealous, and Envious, and the Quenching of their Spirits so Early, Hazzards the Damping of them forever. Beside, that there is no such Fop in Fine, as my Young Master that has the Honour to be a Fool of his Lady Mothers Making. She Blows him up with a Conceit of Himself. and there he Stops without ever Advancing One Step further. In short, she makes a Man of him at Sixteen, and a Boy all the Days of his Life after. And what is All This now, but the True Moral of the Ape with her Brats here in the Fable? The Cub that she carry’d at her Back had the Wit to Shift for it self; but the Other, that she Hugg'd as the Devil did the Witch, Perish’d in her very Arms.