Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LX

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LX.

A Wolfe, a Lamb, and a Goat.

AS a Lamb was following a Goat, Up comes a Wolfe, wheedling, to get him aside, and make a Breakfast of him: Why what a Fool art thou, says the Wolfe; that mayst have thy Belly full of Sweet Milk at Home, to leave thy Mother for a Nasty Stinking Goat! Well, says the Lamb, but my Mother has Plac'd me here for my Security; and you'd fain get me into a Corner, to Worry me. Pray'e, which of the Two am I to Trust to Now?

The Moral.

Where there's the Order of a Parent on the One side, and the Advice of an Ill Man, and a Profess'd Enemy, on the Other, in Opposition to That Command; Disobedience would be Undoubtedly the Ready Way to Destruction.

REFLEXION.

This Fable Preaches both Obedience and Caution; the One as a Matter of Duty, the Other as a Point of Prudence. The Wolfe sings directly the same Note here with the Common Seducers and Incendiaries, that we Meet with in the World. And to the same End too; for they are both Agreed upon't, that so soon as ever they shall have withdrawn the Lambs,or the People, from their Religion and Allegiance, and gotten them out of the Pale, and Protection of their Parents and Governours, they'l make a Prey of 'em Themselves. What's the Wheedling of the Lamb out of the Station where Authority had Plac'd him, to go home again for a Belly full of Sweet Milk; but a State-Trick of Inveigling the Multitude into a Fools-Paradise, without Understanding One word of the Matter in Question! But some Lambs are Wiser and Honester then some Men: And This very Lamb's Answer might have become the Mouth of a Good Christian and a Good Subect. For a Conclusion; The Wolves Preaching to the Sheep, and the Foxes Preaching to the Geese, hold forth the same Moral.