vagant Appetite: Whereas if I could have Contented my ſelf with the Fruit, and left my Tenant the Tree ſtill, All had been Well.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
There’s No forcing Nature againſt her Biaſs, or Inverting the Methods of Providence. Irregular Deſires and Unreaſonable Undertakings muſt expect to meet with Diſappointments. There’s a Proper Time for All Things, and Nothing ſuceceds well, but what's done in Seaſon, And This is not the Only Caſe neither, where an Extravagant Appetite, or Humour makes People forget the Methods of Decency and Reaſon. As in unequal Matches for the Purpoſe: For Marrying is but a kind of Tranſplanting, and an Old Fellow with a Young Wench, may very well paſs for a Counterpart of This Fable.
Fab LXXXIII.
A Fox and a Goat.
A Fox and a Goat went down by Conſent into a Well to Drink, and when they had Quench’d their Thirſt, the Goat fell to Hunting up and down which way to get back again. Oh! ſays Reynard, Never Trouble your Head how to get back, but leave That to Me. Do but You Raiſe your ſelf upon your Hinder Legs with your Fore-Feet Cloſe to the Wall, and then ſtretch out your Head: I can Eaſily Whip up to your Horns, and ſo out of the Well, and Draw you after me. The Goat puts himſelf in Poſture immediately as he was directed, gives the Fox a Lift, and ſo Out he Springs; but Reynards Bus’neſs was now only to make Sport with his Companion inſtead of Helping him. Some Hard Words the Goat gave him, but the Fox puts off all with a Jeſt. If you had but half ſo much Brains as you have Beard, ſays he, you would have bethonght your ſelf how to get up again before you went down.
The Moral.
RE
