Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable XIV

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. XIV.

An Old Lion.

A Lion that in the Days of his Youth and Strength, had been very Outrageous and Cruel, came in the end to be Reduced by Old Age, and Infirmity, to the last Degree of Misery, and Contempt: Insomuch that All the Beasts of the Forrest; some out of Insolence, others in Revenge, some in fine, upon One Pretence, some upon Another, fell upon him by Content. He was a Miserable Creature to all Intents and Purposes; but Nothing went so near the Heart of him in his Distress, as to find himself Batter'd by the Heel of an Asse.

The Moral.

A Prince that does not secure Friends to Himself while he is in Power and Condition to oblige them, must never expect to find Friends, when he is Old and Impotent, and no longer Able to do them any Good. If he Governs Tyrannically in his Youth, he will be sure to be Treated Contemptuously in his Age; and the Baser his Enemies are, the more Insolent, and Intollerable will be the Affront.

REFLEXION.

This may serve for a Lesson to men in Power, that they Treasure up Friends in their Prosperity, against a time of Need; for He that does not Secure himself of a flock of Reputation in his Greatness, shall mosf Certainly fall Unpity'd in his Adversity: And the Baser his Enemies are, the more insupportable is the Insolence, and the forwarder will they be to Trample upon him.

The Case of this Miserable Old Lion may serve to put Great Men in mind, that the Wheele of Time, and of Fortune is still Rolling, and that they themselves are to lie down at last in the Grave with Common Dust: And without any thing to support them in their Age, but the Reputation, Virtue and Conscience of a well spent Youth. Nay Age it self, is well-nigh sufficient to Deface every Letter and Action in the History of a Meritorious Life. For Old Services are Bury'd under the Ruines of an Old Carcass: But there are None yet that fall to Unpity'd; so Just, so Necessary, and so Grateful a Sacrifice to the Rage and Scorn of the common People, as those that have rais'd themselves upon the Spoiles of the Publick: Especially when that Opprestion is Aggravated with a Wanton Cruelty, and with Blood and Rapine, for the very love of Wickedness. It is a kind of Arrogance, in such a case, to be Honest, where 'tis both a Fashion, and a Credit to be Other.

The Lion is here upon his Death Bed; Not a Friend left him, nor so much as an Enemy, with either Fangs or Claws, that does not stand Gaping and Waiting for a Collop of him. Here he lies, Faint, Poor, and Defenceless, under the Judgment of Divine Vengeance, and the Animadversion of Humane Justice, both at once; stung in his own Thoughts with the Guilty Remembrance of the Pride and Riot of his Youth, Abandon'd and Despis'd, by the Righteous Retaliation of Heaven it self: All his Sins, as well as all his Adversaries; his Frauds, and Cruelties; Broken Vows, Promises and Contracts, his Tyranny and Hypocrisie, and the Iniquity, in fine, of All his Councels, and Practices for the Ruine of the Guiltless flying in the face of him.