Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CLXXIV
Fab. CLXXIV.
A Wolfe and a Kid.
A Wolfe spy'd out a Straggling Kid, and Pursu’d him. The Kid found that the Wolfe was too Nimble for him, and so turn’d and told him: I perceive I am to be Eaten, and I would gladly Die as Pleasantly as I could: Wherefore, Pray give me but One Touch of Your Pipe before I go to Pot. The Wolfe Play’d, and the Kid Danc'd, and the Noise of the Pipe brought in the Dogs upon him. Well (says the Wolfe) This 'tis when People will be Meddling out of their Profession, My Bus’ness was to Play the Butcher, not the Piper.
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
LET Every Man stick to his Own Part, without Taking Another Man's Trade out of his Hand. This is the Old Moral, but we may Read upon't Another way too. 'Tis a very Unequal Encounter, when Malice, Craft, and Power, are United against the Weak, and the Innocent: Saving where Providence Interposes to the Relief of the one, and to the Infatuation of the Other: As the Wolfe here, that had a Plot upon the Kid, was Confounded by a Counter-Plot of the Kids upon the Wolfe: And such a Counter-Plot it was too, as the Wolfe with All his Sagacity was not able to Smell out. Wherefore let no Man Presume too much upon his Own Strength, either of Body or of Mind; but Consider within himself, that Heaven takes Part with the Oppressed; and that Tyrants Themselves are upon their Behavior to a Superior Power.