Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXXXII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab LXXXII.

An Old Tree Transplanted.

A Certain Farmer had One Choice Apple-Tree in his Orchard that he Valu'd above all the rest, and he made his Landlord Every Year a Present of the Fruit on't: He lik'd the Apples so very well, that Nothing would serve Him but Transplanting the Tree into his Own Grounds, It Witherd presently upon the Removal, and so there was an end of both Fruit and Tree together. The News was no sooner brought to the Landlord, but he brake out into This Reflexion upon it: This comes, says he, of Transplanting an Old Tree, to Gratifie an Extra-vagant Appetite: Whereas if I could have Contented my self with the Fruit, and left my Tenant the Tree still, All had been Well.

The Moral.

Nature has her Certain Methods and Seasons for the Doing of Every Thing, and there must be no Trying of Experiments to put ber out of ber Course.

REFLEXION.

There’s No forcing Nature against her Biass, or Inverting the Methods of Providence. Irregular Desires and Unreasonable Undertakings must expect to meet with Disappointments. There’s a Proper Time for All Things, and Nothing suceceds well, but what's done in Season, And This is not the Only Case neither, where an Extravagant Appetite, or Humour makes People forget the Methods of Decency and Reason. As in unequal Matches for the Purpose: For Marrying is but a kind of Transplanting, and an Old Fellow with a Young Wench, may very well pass for a Counterpart of This Fable.