Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CXVIII
Fab. CXVIII.
A Boasting Mule.
THere was a Favourite-Mule, that was High Fed, and in the Pride of Flesh and Mettle, would still be Bragging of his Family, and his Ancestors. My Father (says he) was a Coarser, and though I say it that should not say't, I my self take after him. He had no sooner spoke the Words, but he was put to the Tryal of his Heels, and did not only shew himself a Jade; but in the very Heat of his Ostentation, his Father fell a Braying, which Minded him of his Original, and the Whole Field made Sport on't, when they found him to be the Son of an Asse.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
This touches the Case of Those Mean Upstarts, that when they come once to be Preferr'd, forget their Fathers, and have not the Wit to Consider, how soon Fortune may set them Down again where she took ’em up; but yet at last, when they come to be minded of their Original, it makes many a Proud Fool sensible of a Scandalous Extraction, that has no Shame at all for a Scandalous Life.
'Tis hardly safe to Descant upon a Boasting Mule, in a Fable, when there are so many of his Brethren in the World, that will Take it to Themselves. Nay and Over and Above the Self-Conceited Vanity of These Brutes, there are None so forward neither, to Bespatter Men of Blood and Quality, as those that have most Reason to be Asham'd of their Descent. This Pride of Pedigree is Easily run down, if there be not Power Joyn'd to the Ostentation: But where there is Authority given to the Folly, as well as to the Fool; the Indignation that it raises makes the Insolence Insupportable. Nothing Dash’d the Confidence of the Mule like the Braying of the Asse in the very Interim, while he was Dilating upon his Genealogy. As who should say, Remember your Father, Sirrah. This comes to the Case of a Spaniard, that was Wonderfully upon the Huff about his Extraction, and would needs Prove himself of such a Family by the Spelling of his Name; a Cavalier in the Company, with whom he had the Controversie, very Civilly Yielded him the Point; for (says he) I have Examin'd the Records of a certain House of Correction, and I find your Grandfather was Whipt there by That Name. We have in fine a World of Boasting Mules among us, that don't care for being Minded of their Braying Fathers: But 'tis the Fate of These Vain-Glorious Fops to be Thus Met withall, and your Counterfeit Men of Honor seldom come off Better; Wherefore let every Man look well about him before he Boasts of his Pedigree, to see if he had not an Asse to his Father.