Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXI
Fab. LXI.
A Cat and Venus.
A Young Fellow that was Passionately in Love with a Cat, made it his Humble Suit to Venus to turn Puss into a Woman. The Transformation was Wrought in the Twinkling of an Eye, and Out she comes, a Very Bucksome Lass. The Doting Sot took her home to his Bed; and bad Fair for a Litter of Kittens by her That Night: But as the Loving Couple lay Snugging together, a Toy took Venus in the Head, to try if the Cat had Chang'd her Manners with her Shape; and so for Experiment, turn'd a Mouse loose into the Chamber. The Cat, upon This Temptation, Started out of the Bed, and without any regard to the Marriage-Joys, made a Leap at the Mouse, which Venus took for so High an Affront, that she turn'd the Madam into a Puss again.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
This is to lay before us the Charms and Extravagances of a Blind Love. It Covers all Imperfections, and Confiders neither Quality, nor Merit. How many Noble Whores has it made, and how many imperial Slaves! And let the Defects be never so Gross, it either Palliates, or Excuses them. The Womans Leaping at the Mouse, tells us also how Impossible it is to make Nature Change her Biass, and that if we shut her out at the Door, she'll come in at the Window.
Here's the Image of a Wild and Fantastical Love, under the Cover of as Extravagant a Fable, and it is all but Fancy a last too; for men do not See, or Tast, or Find the Thing they Love, but they Create it. They Fashion an Idol, in what Figure or Shape they please; Set it up, Worship it, Dote upon it; Pursue it; and in fine, run Mad for't. How many Passions have we seen in the World, Ridiculous enough to Answer All the Follies of this Imagination! It was much for Venus to turn a Cat into a Woman, and for that Cully again to take That Cat for a Woman: What is it Less now, for a Fop to Form an Idea of the Woman he Dyes for, Every jot as Unlike That Woman, as the Cat is to the Mistress? Let This Suffice for the Impostures, and Illusions of That Passion.
We are further given to Undersland that No Counterteit is so Steady, and so Equally Drawn, but Nature by Starts will shew her self thorough it; for Puss, even when she's a Madam, will be a Mouser still. ’Tis the Same Thing with a Hypocrite, which is only a Devil dress'd up with a Ray about him, and Transform’d into an Angel of Light. Take him in the very Raptures of his Devotion, and do but throw a parcel of Church-Lands in his way, he shall Leap at the Sacrilege from the very Throne of his Glory, as Puss did at the Mouse; and Pick your Pocket, as a French Poet says of a Jesuit, in the Middle of his Paternoster.