Fab. CCIV.
A Peacock and a Pye.
IN the Days of Old, the Birds liv'd at Random in a Lawleſs State of Anarchy; but in time they began to be Weary on't, and Mov'd for the Setting up of a King. The Peacock Valu'd himſelf upon his Gay Feathers, and put in for the Office: The Pretenders were heard, the Queſtion Debated; and the Choice fell upon the Poll to King Peacock: The Vote was no ſooner paſs'd but up ſlands a Pye with a Speech in his Mouth to This Effect: May it pleaſe your Majeſty, ſays he, We ſhould be glad to now, in Caſe the Eagle ſhould fall upon us in your Reign, as ſhe has formerly done, how will you be able to Defend us?
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
KINGS are not to be Choſen for the Beauty or the Graceſulneſs of their Perſons, but for the Reputation they have in the World, and the Endowments of their Minds. This Fable ſhews likewiſe the Neceſſity of Civil Order, and the Danger of Popular Elections, where a Factious Majority commonly Governs the Choice. Take the Plurality of the World, and they are neither Wiſe, nor Good; and if they be left to Themſelves, they will Undoubtedly Chuſe ſuch as They Themſelves Are. 'Tis the Miſery of Elective Governments, that there will be Eternally Corruption and Partiality in the Choice; for there's a Kind of a Tacit Covenant in the Caſe, that the King of their Own making ſall make his Makers Princes too: So that they Work for Themſelves all this while not for the Publique: But the Pyes Queſtion ſtopt all their Mouths, and it was Wiſely let fall too without a Reply, to Intimate that it was Unanſwerable.
