Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CXXII
Fab. CXXII.
A Lyoness and a Fox.
A Numerous Issue passes in the World for a Blessing; and This Consideration made a Fox cast it in the Teeth of a Lyoness, that she brought forth but One Whelp at a time. Very Right, says the Other, but then That One is a Lyon.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
There are more Fools in the World then Wise Men, and more Knaves then Honest Men; so that it is not Number, but Excellency, that Inhaunces the Value of Any thing, The most copious Writers are commonly the Arrantest Scriblers; And so in much Talking, the Tongue is apt to run before the Wit: In Many Words there is Folly, but a Word in Season is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver: Says the Oracle of Truth it self. And we have it from the same Authority, that our very Prayers, when they are Loud and Long, are in the Sight of Heaven no better then so much Babbling; and that they have More in them of Hypocrisy and Ostentation, then of Affection and Judgment. The Great Creator of the Universe, whose single FIAT was sufficient to have made Ten Thousand Worlds in the Twinkling of an Eye, Allowed himself Six Dayes yet tor the Finishing of his Purpose: Paus’d upon Every Days Work, Considerd of it, Review'd it, and Pronounc'd it Good; and so Procceded. Right Reason Moves, in some Proportion, by the same Steps and Degrees with This Inimitable Example: It Deliberates, Projects, Executes, Weighes, and Approves. Nature does Nothing in a Huddle, and Human Prudence should Govern it self by the same Measures. A Plurality of Voices, 'tis true, carryes the Question in all our Debates, but rather as an Expedient for Peace, then an Eviction of the Right; for there are Millions of Errors to One Reason, and Truth; And a Point is not so Easy to be Hit: In a Word, the Old Saying is a shrewd One, that Wise Men Propose, and Fools Determine. Take the World to picecs, and there are a thousand Sots to one Philosopher: and as many Swarms of Flyes to One Eagle. Lions do not come into the World by Litters.