Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCXXXVII
Fab. CCXXXVII.
A Fir and a Bramble.
THere goes a Story of a Fir-Tree, that in a Vain spiteful Humour, was mightily upon the Pin of Commending it self, and Despising the Bramble. My Head (says the Fir) is advanc'd among the Stars. I furnish Beams for Palaces. Masts for Shipping: The very Sweat of my Body is a Sovereign Remedy for the Sick and Wounded: Whereas the Rascally Bramble runs creeping in the Dirt, and serves for No Purpose in the World but Mischief. Well, says the Bramble (that Over-heard all This) You might have said somewhat of your Own Misfortune, and to My Advantage too, if Your Pride and Envy would have suffer’d you to do it. Bur pray will you tell me however, when the Carpenter comes next with his Axe into the Wood to Fell Timber, whether you had not rather be a Bramble then a Fir-Tree.
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
THERE is no State of Life without a Mixture in't of Good and Evil; and the Highest Pitch of Fortune is not without Dangers, Cares, and Fears. This Doctrine is Verify’d by Examples Innumerable, thorough the Whole History of the World, and that the Mean is Best, both for Body, Mind, and Estate. Pride is not only Uneasie, but Unsafe too, for it has the Power and Justice of Heaven, and the Malicious Envy of Men to Encounter at the same Time; and the Axe that Cuts down the Fir, is Rightly Moralliz'd in the Stroke of Divine Vengeance, that brings down the Arrogant, while the Bramble Contents it self in its Station: That is to say; Humility is a Vertue, that never goes without a Blessing.