Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CVIII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. CVIII.

A Father and Sons.

A Countryman that liv'd Handsomly’in the World Himself upon his Honest Labour and Industry, was desirous his Sons should do so After Him; and being now upon his Death-Bed: [My Dear Children (says he) I reckon my self Bound to tell you before I depart, that there is a Considerable Treasure Hid in my Vineyard. Wherefore pray be sure to Dig, and search Narrowly for't when I am gone. The Father Dyes, and the Sons fall immediately to Work upon the Vineyard. They Turn'd it up over and over, and not one Penny of Mony to be found there; but the Profit of the Next Vintage Expounded the Riddle.

The Moral.

Good Councell is the Best Legacy a Father can leave to a Child, and it is still the Better, when it is so wrapt up, as to Beget a Curiosity as well as an Inclination to follow it.

REFLEXION.

There's No Wealth like That which comes by the Blesling of God upon Honest Labour and Warrantable Industry. Here’s an Incitement to an Industrious Course of Life, by a Consideration of the Profit, the Innocence and the Virtue, of such an Application. There is one Great Comfort in Hand, beside the Hope and Assurance of more to come. The very Exercise procures us Health, and Consequently All the Pleasures and Satisfactions that Attend it. We have the Delight of Seeing and Reaping the Fruit of our own Labour, and the Inward Joy of Contemplating the Benedictions of Another World, that shall be superadded to the Advantages of This. Æsop very well understood, that Naked Lessons and Precepts, have Nothing the Force that Images and Parables have, upon our Minds and Affections: Beside, that the very Study to Unriddle a Mystery, furnishes the Memory with more Tokens to Remember it by. A Tale in Emblem finks Deeper, where the Life and Spirit of it is Insinuated by a kind of Biass and Surprize. It was a Touch of Art in the Father to Cover his Meaning in such a manner, as to Create a Curiosity, and an Earnest Desire in his Sons to find it out. And it was also a Treble Advantage to them besides; for there was, I say, Health in the Exercise, Profit in the Discovery, and the Comfort of a Good Conscience in Discharging the Duty of a Filial Obedience.