Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CXXIV

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. CXXIV.

A Fawn and a Stag.

A Fawn was Reasoning the Matter with a Stag, why he should run away from the Dogs still; for, says he, you are Bigger and Stronger then They. If you have a Mind to stand, y'are better Arm'd; And then y’are Fleeter if you'll Run fort. I can't Imagine what should make you so Fearful of a Company of Pityful Currs. Nay, says the Stag, ‘tis All True that you say, and 'tis no more then I say to my self Many Times, and yet whatever the Matter is, let me take up what Resolutions I please, when I hear the Hounds once, I cannot but betake my self to my Heels.

The Moral.

'Tis One thing to Know what we ought to do, and Another thing to Execute it; and to bring up our Practice to our Philosophy: He that is naturally a Coward is not to be made Valiant by Councell.

REFLEXION.

Natural Infirmities are well nigh Insupcrable; and Men that are Cowards by Complexion, are hardly ever to be made Valiant by Discourte. But They are Conscious yet of the Scandal of that Weakness, and may make a shift perhaps to Reason themselves now and then into a kind of Temporary Resolution, which they have not the Power afterwards to go Thorough with. We find it to be much the same Case in the Government of our Affections and Appetites, that it is in These Bodyly Frailties of Temperament and Complexion. Providence has Arm'd us with Powers and Faculties, sufficient for the Confounding of All the Enemies we have to Encounter. We have Life and Death before us: That is to say, Good and Evil; And we know which is which too: Beside that it is at our Choice to Take or to Refuse. So that we understand what we ought to do; but when we come to Deliberate, we play Booty against our selves: And while our Judgments and our Consciences direct us One Way, our Corruptions Hurry us Another. This Stag, in fine, is a Thorough Emblem of the State, and Infirmity of Mankind, We are both of us Arm'd and Provided, either for the Combat, or for Flight. We see the Danger; we Ponder upon it; and now and then by Fits, take up some Faint Resolutions to Outbrave and break thorough it: But in the Conclusion, we shrink upon the Tryal; We betake our selves from our Heads to our Heels; from Reason to Flesh and Bloud; from our Strength to our Weaknesses, and suffer under One Common Fate.