Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXXVII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LXXVII.

A Sheep and a Crow.

THere was a Crow sat Chattering upon the Back of a Sheep; Well! Sirrah says the Sheep, You durst not ha' done This to a Dog. Why I know that says the Crow as well as You can tell me, for I have the Wit to Consider Whom I have to do withall. I can be as Quiet as any body with Those that are Quarrelsome, and I can be as Troublesome as Another too, when I Meet with Those that will Take it.

The Moral.

‘Tis the Nature and the Practice of Drolls and Buffoons, to be Insolent toward Those that will bear it, and as Slavish to Others that are more then their Match.

REFLEXION.

'Tis No New Thing for an Innocent Simplicity to be made the Sport of Bantering Drolls, and Buffoons. This is to tell Modest and Well-Meaning Men what they are to Expect in this World, and what they are to Trust to where there is not a Power sufficicnt to Repel Force by Force: And it serves further to keep This Check upon the Insolent, that there are Others as much too Hard for Them, as They are for Those that they Oppress. This Crow is much of the Humour of the Mobile. They are Tongue-Valiant 'tis True, and as Bold as Hercules where theyknow there's No Danger, but throw a Volly of Shot among them, and they have not the Courage of so many Hares. And what is All This Now, but according to the Guise of the World, God Threatens Kings, (as Dr. Donne has it) Kings Lords, as Lords do Us. He that’s a Tyrant over One Man is a Slave to Another.