For the Gratifying of This Canker’d Malignity is but Another way of ſelling him; Only the Spite is Antecedent and Subſervient to the Corruption: But This Court-Envy is not Altogether the Envy of the Dog in the Fable. For there’s a Mixture of Avarice and Intereſt in the Former, whereas the Other is a Spitefull Malignity purely for Miſchief ſike. The Dog will rather Starve himſelf then the Oxe ſhall Eat; but the Courtier will be ſure to Look to One whoever elſe goes to the Devil.
Fab. LXXVII.
A Sheep and a Crow.
THere was a Crow ſat Chattering upon the Back of a Sheep; Well! Sirrah ſays the Sheep, You durſt not ha' done This to a Dog. Why I know that ſays the Crow as well as You can tell me, for I have the Wit to Conſider Whom I have to do withall. I can be as Quiet as any body with Thoſe that are Quarrelſome, and I can be as Troubleſome as Another too, when I Meet with Thoſe that will Take it.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
'Tis No New Thing for an Innocent Simplicity to be made the Sport of Bantering Drolls, and Buffoons. This is to tell Modeſt and Well-Meaning Men what they are to Expect in this World, and what they are to Truſt to where there is not a Power ſufficicnt to Repel Force by Force: And it ſerves further to keep This Check upon the Inſolent, that there are Others as much too Hard for Them, as They are for Thoſe that they Oppreſs. This Crow is much of the Humour of the Mobile. They are Tongue-Valiant 'tis True, and as Bold as Hercules where theyknow there's No Danger, but throw a Volly of Shot among them, and they have not the Courage of ſo many Hares. And what is All This Now, but according to the Guiſe of the World, God Threatens Kings, (as Dr. Donne has it) Kings Lords, as Lords do Us. He that’s a Tyrant over One Man is a Slave to Another.
Fab.
