fore. It was his Chance, after This, to Meet a Third Lyon; and he had the Courage, Then, to Accoſt him, and to make a kind of an Acquaintance with him.
The Moral of the Two Fables above.
REFLEXION.
Things that at firſt ſeem Terrible, become Eaſy to us when we are Wonted to them; ſays the Old Moral; which holds, I confeſs, in the Caſe of the Camel, but not in That of the Lyon.
With leave of the Moraliſt, the Illuſtration does not come up to the Force and Intent of the Two Laſt Fables: Neither, in truth, is the very Deſign of them according to the True Reaſon of the Matter in Queſtion. Things that ſeem Terrible, and are Not ſo, become not only Familiar, but Ridiculous to us, when we find that our Fears were Vain and Idle; as in the caſe of the Camel: But things on the contrary, that only Seem Terrible, but arr found upon Experience to be more Dangerous then we took them for: (as in the Strength, the Nimbleneſs, the Fierceneſs, and the Appetite of a Lyon.) Theſe are Things, I ſay, that the Better we Know them, the More we Dread them: So that though we have Apprehenſions, as well where there is No Peril, as where there Is: Yet Time teaches us to Diſtinguith the One from the Other. The Alluſion would much better have held in the caſe of a Battle, where the Soldier grows Every day leſs apprehenſive of the Hazzard, by ſeeing ſo many People Scape; and by Computing upon the Diſproportion of Thoſe that Outlive it, to Thoſe that Fall in’t. We may however Learn from hence, that people may be Frighted as well Without Reaſon as With it. Now, in Propriety of Speaking, and in a Right Underſtanding of the Thing too, People were not ſo much Frighted, as they were Surpriz’d at the Bigneſs, and Uncouth Deformity of the Camel: But I could Wiſh, the Fox had been More and More affraid of the Lyon, the Oftner he Saw him; and the Doctrine would then have been to Govern our Paſſions by the Truth and Reaſon of Things, not by Appearances; but it holds however, that Cuſtom goes a Great Way in making Matters Indifferent to us. "Tis much the ſame Caſe too, betwixt the People, and Bugg-Laws, and Acts of State, that it is here betwixt the Fox and the Lyon. Men look, upon the Firſt Opening of a Publique Faſt , as if Heaven and Earth were going together; Not a Shop Open; The Streets Quiet, and ſo Diſmal a Countenance Every where, as if it were to Rain Fire and Brimſtone the Next Moment. The Second Day is a Little Uneaſy too, but not half ſo Frightful as the Former: and ſo in Two or Three days more, the Awe goes quite off, and the People come to their Wits , and fall to their Trade again, without any further Heed to the Matter.
Fab.
