Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXXXVII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LXXXVII.

A Woman and a Fat Hen.

A Good Woman had a Hen that laid her Every Day an Egg. Now she fancy'd to her selfe, that upon a Larger Allowance of Corn, This Hen might be brought in time to lay twice a day. She Try'd the Experiment; but the Hen grew Fat upon’t, and gave quite over Laying.

The Moral.

He that has a Great Deal already, and would have More, will never think he has enough 'till he has All; and That's Impossible: wherefore we should set Bounds to our Desires, and Content our Selves when we are Well, for fear of Losing what we had.

REFLEXION.

Here’s a Figure of the Folly, and the Mischief of Vain Desires, and an Immoderate Love of Riches. Covetousness is enough to make the Master of the World as Poor as He that has just Nothing; for a Man may be brought to a Morsel of Bread, by Griping, as well as by Profusion. 'Tis a Madness for a Body that has enough already, to Hazard All for the Getting of More, and then upon the Miscarriage to leave himself Nothing. This was the Woman’s Case and Fault here. In Few Words, there’s a Just Medium betwixt Eating too much, and too Little; and this Dame had Undoubredly Hit upon’t, when the Matter was so Order'd, that the Hen brought her Every Day an Egg. But when she came to Enlarge the Hens Allowance for her own Profit, upon an Opinion that more Corn would Produce more Eggs, her Avarice Misled her into a Disappointment, which was both a Judgment upon the Sin in the Loss of what she had before, and an Error in the very Point of Manage, and Good Huswiv'ry ; for Repletion Obstructs the most Necessary Offices-of Nature.