Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LI

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LI.

An Ape and a Fox.

AN Ape that found Many Inconveniences by going Bare-Arse, went to a Fox that had a Well-spread, Bushy Tayle, and begg'd of him only a little piece on't to Cover his Nakedness: For (says he) you have enough for Both, and what needs more than you have Occasion for? Well, John (says the Fox) be it More, or be it Less, you get not one single Hair on't; for I would have ye know, Sirrah, that the Tayle of a Fox was never made for the Buttocks of an Ape.

The Moral.

Providence has Assign'd Every Creature its Station, Lot, Make and Figure; and 'tis not for Us to stand Correcting the Works of an Incomprehensible Wisdom, and an Almighty Power.

REFLEXION.

This is to Reprove the Impertinent, Useless, and Unreasonable Demands of Those that first Ask what Another cannot Part with, unless he be a Stark Fool, or a Mad Man. And 2. That which if they could obtain would be of No Use, or Benefit to them at all. The Old Moral carries it to Those also that will Part with Nothing to the Poor, even out of their Superfluities: But it seems to be Abominably Wrested, for neither did the One want, nor had the other Any Thing to spare.

There are Cerrain Rules to be observed, as well in Asking, as Denying. Things against Nature are unreasonable on Both Sides. Things Impossible are Ridiculous in the very Proposal; and Things which the One cannot Spare, and the Other will be never the Better for, fall naturally within the Compass of Exceptions. That is to say, Those Things that we know not what to do withal if we Had them; and Those Things again, which Another Cannot Part with but to his own Loss and Shame. These Points are the very Conditions of This Fable. Here's a General Caution against Extravagant Desires, and yet let the Refusal be never so Just, it is Possible however, that a Man may Oppose a most Unconscionable Request for an Unjustifiable Reason; As in the Case for the purpose, of an Ill Natur'd Denyal, out of a Dislike of the Man, rather than of the Thing itself.

The Application of This Fable to Avarice, that will part with Nothing, seems to be Wrested; for it strikes more properly upon the Folly of People's not being satisfied with the Appointments of Nature. An Ape, with a tayl, would be as scandalous, as a Fox without One. Why should not Any One Creature Envy the Whole, as well as any One Part of Another? And why should not an Ape be as much Troubled that he has no Wings, as that he has no Tayle? This Grumbling Humour has Envy in it, Avarice and Ingratitude, and sets up it self in fine against All the Works of the Creation.