Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable XXXII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. XXXII.

A Fox and a Carv'd Head.

AS a Fox was Rummidging among a Great many Carv'd Figures, there was One very Extraordinary Piece among the Rest. He took it up, and when he had Consider'd it a while, Well, (says he) What Pity 'tis, that so Exquisite an Outside of a Head should not have one Grain of Sense in't.

The Moral.

'Tis not the Barber or the Taylor that makes the Man; and 'tis No New Thing to see a Fine Wrought Head without so much as One Grain of Salt in't.

REFLEXION.

Many a Fool has a Fair Out-side, and Many a Man of Fortune, and Title has not so much as Common Sense. We have a Whole World of Heads to Answer the Drift of This Emblem : But there is No Judging however by the Senses, of Matters that the Senses can take No Cognizance of; as Vircue, Wisdom, and the Like. The Excellency, in fine, of of the Soul is above the Beauty of the Body: Not but that the Graces of the One, and the Endowments of the Other, may Encounter sometimes, (how rarely soever) in One and the Same Person. But Beauty and Judgment are so far yet from being Inseparable, that they seem Effectually to Require, More or Less, a Diversity of Temperament: Beside that More Care is taken to Cultivate the Advantages of the Body than those of the Mind. To Wrap up all in a Word, the World it self is but a Great Shop of Carv'd Heads; and the Fox's Conceit will hold as well in the Life, as in the Fiction.