Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable XLIII
Fab. XLIII.
A Stag Drinking.
AS a Stag was Drinking upon the Bank of a Clear Stream, he saw his Image in the Water, and Enter'd into This Contemplation upon't. Well! says he, If These Pityful Shanks of mine were but Answerable to this Branching Head, I can but think how I mould Defy All my Enemies. The Words were hardly out of his Mouth, but he Discover'd a Pack of Dogs coming full-Cry towards him. Away he Scours cross the Fields, Casts off the Dogs, and Gains a Wood; but Pressing thorough a Thicket, the Bullies held him by the Horns, till the Hounds came in, and Pluck'd him Down. The Last Thing he said was This. What an Unhappy Fool was I, to Take my Friends for my Enemies, and my Enemies for my Friends! I Trusted to my Head, that has Betray'd me, and I found fault with my Leggs, that would otherwise have brought me off.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
This is to shew us how perversly we Judge of Many Things, and take the Worse for the Better; and the Better for the Worse; upon a very great Mistake, both in what we Despise, and in what we Admire. But we are rather for That which is Fair, and Plausible in Appearance, then for That which is Plain and Profitable in Effect; Even to the Degree of Preferring Things Temporal to Eternal.
He that would Know Himself, must look into Himself. 'Tis only the Resemblance, or the Shadow that he sees in the Glass, Not the Man. 'Tis One Thing to Fancy Greatness of Mind; Another Thing to Prmise it; for a Body may Promise, nay and resolve upon Many Things in Contemplation, that he can never make good upon Tryal. How did the Stag despise the Dogs here, at the fight of his Armed Head in the Fountain; but his Heart went quite to another Tune, when the Hounds were at the Heels of him. We are likewise taught here, how subject Vain Men are to Glory in That which commonly Tends to their Loss, their Misfortune, their Shame, and their very Destruction; and yet at the same time to take their Best Friends for their Enemies. But there's a Huge Difference betwixt a False Conception of Things, and the True Nature and Reason of them. The Stag Prided himself in his Horns, that afterward Shackled, and were the Ruine of him; but made flight of his Pityful Shanks, that if it had not been for his Branching Head, would have brought him off.