Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXIII
Fab. LXIII.
A Laden Asse and a Horse.
AS a Horse and an Asse were upon the Way together, the Asse cryed out to his Companion, to Ease him, of his Burden, though never so little, he should fall down Dead else. The Horse would not; and so his Fellow-Servant sunk under his Load. The Master, upon This, had the Asse Flay’d, and laid his Whole Pack, Skin and All, upon the Horse. Well, (says he) This Judgment is befall'n me for my Ill Nature, in refusing to help my Brother in the Depth of his Distress.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
The Bus'ness of the World, is more or less, the Bus'ness of Every Man that lives in’t: And if the Great and the Small do not Joyn in One Common Assistance, where the Matter requires it, they are in Danger to be Both Undone: So that it is for the Good of the Whole, that the Several Parts take care One for Another.
We have here set before us the Mischieves of Ill Nature, and Imprudence, both in One; and the Folly of nor Heeding the Duty, as well as the Common Necessity, of Helping One Another. [This is None of My Bus'ness] we Cry; never considering, that in Things Requisite to be done, what One Cannot, Another Must: Beside, that in the Cafe of a Fellow-Servant, or an Honest Neighbour, I am as much bound to save him from Sinking under a Heavy Burden, as I am to give him a Cup of Drink, or a Morsel of Bread, to keep him from Choaking or Starving: It makes a Breach in a Community, when Particular Men shall take upon them to Divide from the Common Service of the Body: And He that sets up a Private Interest, Separate from the Publique, Discontinues the Connexion of the Government, by Cutting off That Link of the Chain. But the Miseries and Calamities that follow upon departing from the Known Rules and Measures of Political Order, are sufficient to Enlighten us in the Reason of Political Methods, and to Excite us to an Agreement in all Reciprocal Services, One with Another. There’s the Duty of Charity in't, and the Foundations of Governing Prudence; Beside, that we are likewise Mov’d to’t, by a Sense of Tenderness, Honor and Justice,
The Churlish Humour of this Horse, is too much the Humour of Mankind, even in the Case of Subjects to the same Master; but such is the Vanity that many People draw from their Titles, and their Trappings, that they look down upon their Fellows, as if they were not All made of the same Clay. To speak the Plain Truth of the Matter, 'Tis the Little People that support the Great; and when the Foundation fails, the whole Fabrick must either drop into Rubbish, or otherwise Rest upon the Shoulders of their Superiors.