a Previous Malice, and it may be Hazardous to Yield, even where the Propoſal is wholly Innocent. There may be other Propoſitions again, that were Originally Deſign'd for Snares, to the Short-ſighted and Credulous, Now 'tis the Art of Life, Critically to Diſcern the One Caſe from, the Other.
There needs Little more to be ſaid to the Emblems of the Eagle and the Thruſh, than to obſerve, that both by Chance, and by Nature, we are made Acceſſary to our Own Ruines: and That's enough to Trouble a Body, though not to Condemn him.
Fab. L.
The Belly and Members.
THE Commoners of Rome were gon off once into a Direct Faction againſt the Senate. They'd pay no Taxes, nor be forc'd to bear Arms, they ſaid, and 'twas againſt the Liberty of the Subject to pretend to Compel them to't. The Sedition, in ſhort, ran ſo High, that there was no Hope of Reclaiming them, till Menenius Agrippa brought them to their Wits again by This Apologue:
The Hands and the Feet were in a Deſperate Mutiny once againſt the Belly. They knew No Reaſon, they ſaid, why the One ſhould lye Lazying, and Pampering it ſelf with the Fruit of the Others Labour; and if the Body would not Work for Company, they'd be no longer at the Charge of Maintaining it. Upon This Mutiny, they kept the Body ſo long without Nouriſhment, that All the Parts Suffer'd for't: Inſomuch that the Hands and Feet came in the Concluſion to find their Miſtake, and would have been willing Then to have Done their Office; but it was now too Late, for the Body was ſo Pin'd with Over-Faſting, that it was wholly out of Condition to receive the Benefit of a Relief: which gave them to Underſtand, that Body and Members are to Live and Die together.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
This Allegoty is a Political Reading upon the State and Condition of Civil Communities, where the Members have their Several Offices, and Every Part Contributes reſpectively to the Preſervation and Serviceof
