Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable XXIII
WHen Mountains cry out, people may well be Excus'd the Apprehension of some Prodigious Birth. This was the Case here in the Fable. The Neighbourhood were All at their Wits end, to consider what would be the issue of That Labour, and instead of the Dreadful Monster that they Expected, Out comes at last a Ridiculous Mouse.
Fab. XXIII.
A Mountain in Labour.
The Moral.
Much ado about Nothing.
REFLEXION.
What are All the Extravagant Attempts and Enterprizes of Vain Men in the World, but Morals, more or less of This Fable? What are Mighty Pretences, without Consideration, or Effect, but the Vapours of a Distemper, that like Sickly Dreams, have neither Issue nor Connexion? And the Disappointment is not All neither; for men make themselves Ridiculous, instead of Terrible, when this Tympany shall come to End in a Blast: and a Mountain to bring forth a Mouse.