Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable L

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. L.

The Belly and Members.

THE Commoners of Rome were gon off once into a Direct Faction against the Senate. They'd pay no Taxes, nor be forc'd to bear Arms, they said, and 'twas against the Liberty of the Subject to pretend to Compel them to't. The Sedition, in short, ran so High, that there was no Hope of Reclaiming them, till Menenius Agrippa brought them to their Wits again by This Apologue:

The Hands and the Feet were in a Desperate Mutiny once against the Belly. They knew No Reason, they said, why the One should lye Lazying, and Pampering it self with the Fruit of the Others Labour; and if the Body would not Work for Company, they'd be no longer at the Charge of Maintaining it. Upon This Mutiny, they kept the Body so long without Nourishment, that All the Parts Suffer'd for't: Insomuch that the Hands and Feet came in the Conclusion to find their Mistake, and would have been willing Then to have Done their Office; but it was now too Late, for the Body was so Pin'd with Over-Fasting, that it was wholly out of Condition to receive the Benefit of a Relief: which gave them to Understand, that Body and Members are to Live and Die together.

The Moral.

The Publick is but One Body, and the Prince the Head on't; so that what Member soever withdraws his Service from the Head, is no Better than a Negative Traitor to his Country.

REFLEXION.

This Allegoty is a Political Reading upon the State and Condition of Civil Communities, where the Members have their Several Offices, and Every Part Contributes respectively to the Preservation and Service of the Whole. Tis true, their Operations are More or Less Noble, but the Mechanical Faculties can no more be Spar'd than the Intellectual, and those that Serve in Council under an Appearance of Rest, are yet as Busie, and as Necessary, in their Functions. as those that are Actually and Visibly in Motion. Here's a Caution in fine, to the Members, to have a care how they withdraw themselves from their Duties, till it shall be too late for their Superiors to make use of them.

There is fo Near an Analogy betwixt the State of a Body Natural, and and Politique, that the Necessity of Government and Obedience cannot be better Represented. The Motions of a Popular Faction are so Violent, and Unreasonable, that neither Philosophy, Prudence, Experience, nay, nor the Holy Writ it self, has the Power (ordinarily speaking) to Work upon them. If People would allow themselves Time for Thought, and Consideration, they would find that the Conservation of the Body depends upon the Proper Use and Service of the Several Parts; and that the Interest of Every Distinct Member of it, is wrapt up in the Support, and Maintenance of the whole, which obliges them all to Labour in their Respective Offices and Functions for the Common Good. There are Degrees of Dignity (no doubt on't) in Both Cases, and One Part is to be Subservient to Another, in the Order of Civil Policy, as well as in the Frame of a Man's Body: so that they are mightily out of the way, that take Eating and Drinking, and Un-Eating, and Un-Drinking, in a course of Vicissitude, with other Offices of Nature that are common to Beads with Men, to be the Great Bus'ness of Mankind, without any further Regard to the Faculties, and Duties of our Reasonable Being: For Every Member has its Proper, and Respective Function Assigned it, and not a Finger suffers but the Whole Feels on't.