Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXVIII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LXVIII.

A Dog and a Wolfe.

THERE was a Hagged Carrion of a Wolfe, and a Jolly Sort of a Gentile Dog, with Good Flesh upon his Back, that fell into Company together upon the King’s High-Way. The Wolfe wonderfully pleas'd with his Companion, and as Inquisitive to Learn how he brought himself to That Blessed State of Body. Why, says the Dog, I keep my Master's House from Thieves, and I have very Good Meat, Drink, and Lodging for my pains. Now if you'll go along with Me, and do as I do, you may fare as I fare. The Wolfe Struck up the Bargain, and so away they Trotted together: But as they were Jogging on, the Wolfe spy'd a Bare Place about the Dogs Neck, where the Hair was worn off, Brother (says he) how comes this I prethee? Oh, That’s Nothing, says the Dog, but the Fretting of my Collar a little. Nay, says T'other, if there be a Collar in the Case, I know Better Things than to sell my Liberty for a Crust.

The Moral.

We are so Dazzel'd with the Glare of a Splendid Appearance, that we can hardly Discern the Inconveniencies that Attend it. ’Tis a Comfort to have Good Meat and Drink at Command, and Warm Lodging: But He that sells bis Freedom for she Cramming of his Gutt , has but a Hard Bargain of it.

REFLEXION.

In This Emblem is set forth the Blessing of Liberty, and the Sordid Meanness of those Wretches that sacrifice their Freedom to their Lusts, and their Palates. What Man in his Right Senses, that has wherewithal to Live Free, would make himself a Slave for Superfluities! The Wolfe would have been well enough Content to have Barter’d away a Ragged Coat, and a Raw: Bon’d Carcafs, for a Smooth and a Fat One; but when they came to talk of a Collar once, away Marches He to His Old Trade in the Woods again, and makes the Better Choice of the Two.

To speak to the First Point, we are lyable to be Impos'd upon by Outsides aud Appearances, for want of Searching things to the Bottom, and Examining what Really they are, and what they Only seem to be. This Fiction of the Wolfe, is a Reproof to Eager Appetites, and Over-Hasty Judgments, that will not give themselves time to Ballance Accounts, and Compute Before hand, whether they are to get or Lose by the Bargain. It holds as well against Intemperate Curiosities, and Rash Wishes, That is to say, against the Folly of the One, and the Wickedness of the Others for if we come once to take Evil for Good, our very Prayers are turn'd into Sin: But what with a Certain Itch of Prying into, and Meddling with Other Peoples Matters, and a Natural Levity that puts us upon Shifting and Changing, we fall insensibly into a Thousand Inconveniencies: and when it comes to That once, that we find our selves Uneasie at Home, and no Resting-Place in our Own Thoughts, (where Rest is Only to be had) we are e'en glad to run away from our Selves, and Hunt abroad for’t where ‘tis never to be found. This is the Common Root of all our Wandrings and Errors. We Spend our Time, and our Peace, in Pursuit of Things wholly Forreign to our Business, and which will Certainly Deceive us at last.

Thus it Is, and Thus it must be, so long as we take Every thing by a Wrong Handle, and only Calculate upon our Own Misfortunes, without any Allowance for the Comforts that we Enjoy. And fo we reckon upon our Neighbours Enjoyments, on the Other hand, without any Consideration for the Hardships that They Endure. Oh that I had but such a Palace! Says One; Such an Eslate; Such a Retinue; This Glorious Train; That Lovely Woman, &c. Nay the Envious Freak Descends to the very Point and Petticoat, Now These Idle Curiosities may be Specious Enough in the Contemplation; but what if This House, at the Foot of the Account, should Prove to be Haunted, That Gay Furniture Borrow'd; T'other Fine Woman Clapt; The Curse of Sacrilege cleaving to such an Inheritance, and all the rest of the Gawdy Fooleries perhaps Unpay’d for (as these Incumbrances are No New Things in Nature) Who would not rather take up with the Wolfe in the Woods again, then make such a Clutter in the World upon These Scandalous Conditions.

For the Obviating of All Cases of this Quality, Children should be Early Instructed, according to their Age and Capacity, in the True Estimate of Things, by Opposing the Good to the Evil, and the Evil to the Good; and Compensating, or Qualifying One Thing with Another. What's Plenty without Health? What's Ease without Plenty? And what's Title and Greatness, with Carking Thoughts, and a Troubled Mind to Attend it? What does That Man Want that has Enough? Or What’s He the better for a Great deal, that can never be Satisfy’d? By This Method of Setting what we Have against What we have Not, the Equity of Providence will be made Manifest, and to All manner of purposes Justify’d; When it shall appear upon the Ballance, that Every man has his Share in the Bounties of Heaven to Mankind.

As to the Freedom here that Æsop is so Tender of, it is to be Understood of the Freedom of the Mind: A Freedom to Attend the Motions of Right Reason; and a Freedom, in fine, not to be Parted with for All the Sensual Satisfactions under the Sun. It is, I say, a Freedom under These Limits; for there's No such Thing as Absolute Liberty: Neither is it possible that there should be any, without a Violence to the Order of the Universe, and to the Dictates of Reasonable Nature: For All men Living are in Some sort or Other, and upon some Penalty or Other, Subjected to a Superior Power; That is to say, the Laws of Morality are Above them: But the Case wherein All men are upon the Behaviour is not here the Question, To Wind up the Moral, in short; Liberty is a Jewel, and a Blessing. The Wolfe was well enough pleas’d here with the State of the Dogs Body, but he had no fancy to his Collar.