REFLEXION.
This is to Intimate, that where Rulers lay Snares, deal Falſely, and Exerciſe Cruelty, All goes to Wrack both Publique and Private. All Frauds are Cover'd and Gilded over with Specious Pretences, and Men are Every jot as Eaſily Impos'd upon, as Birds, Beaſts, or Fiſhes; while the Eagerneſs of our Appetites Suſpends the Exerciſe of our Reaſon. A Treat, a Woman, or a Bottle, is the ſame Thing to Us, that a Worm, a Gudgeon, a Grain of Corn, or a piece of Raw Fleſh is to Thoſe Animals. We Snap at the Bait without ever Dreaming of the Hook, the Trap, or the Snare that goes Along with it. Now what's the Difference betwixt Æsop's Pretext here for the Building of a City, and the Cheats that we have heard of, the Saving of a City. The Deſign was Deſtruction in Both, and That was for the Event on't too. Religion, Liberty and Property were the Bait: Nay the very Sound of the Words did the Bus'neſs, The Common People will Chop like Trouts at an Artificial Fly, and Dare like Larks under the Awe of a Painted Hobby. ’Tis with Men, juſt as 'tis with Birds and Fiſhes, There’s not a Mortal of us that will not Bite at ſome Bait or other, and We are caught as Sillily too, as the Bird was here in the Net.
Fab. XCVII.
Mercury and a Traveller.
ONe that was juſt Entring upon a Long Journey, took up a Fancy of putting a Trick upon Mercury. He ſay’d him a ſhort Prayer for the Bon Voyage, with a Promiſe, that the God ſhould go Halfe with him in whatever he found. Some body had loft a Bag of Dates and Almonds, it ſeems, and it was His Fortune to Find it. He fell to Work upon 'em Immediately, and when he had Eaten up the Kernels, and All that was Good of them, Himſelf, he lay’d the Stones, and the Shells upon an Altar; and deſir'd Mercury to take Notice that he had Perform’d his Vow. For, ſays he, Here are the Outſides of the One, and the Inſides of the Other, and there's the Moiety I Promis'd ye.
The MORAL.
