A Man can hardly fancy to himſelf a Truer Image of a Plain, Honeſt, Country Simplicity, then the Ants part of the Dialogue in This Fable. She takes pains for What ſhe Eats; Wrongs No body; and ſo Creates No Enemies; She wants Nothing, and ſhe Boaſts of Nothing; Lives Contented with her Own, and Enjoys all with a Good Conſcience. This Emblem recommends to us the Bleſſings of a Virtuous Privacy, according to the juſt Meaſures of Right Nature, and in Few Words, comprizes the Sum of a Happy State.
The Fly, on the Contrary, leads a Lazy, Voluptuous, Scandalous, Sharking Life; Hateful wherever ſhe comes, and in Perpetual Fears and Dangers. She flutters, 'tis true, from place to place, from Feaſt to Feaſt, Brags of her Intereſt at Court, and of Ladies Favours: And what's This Miſerable Inſect at laſt, but the very Picture of one of our Ordinary Trencher Squires, that ſpend their time in Hopping from One Great man's Table to Anothers, only to Pick up Scraps, and Intelligence, and to Spoil Good Company! I cannot ſee one of Theſe Officious, Humble Companions, Skipping up and down from Levée to Levée, and making himſelf Neceſſary, wherever he thinks fit to be Troubleſome: I cannot hear a Finical Fop Romancing, how the King took him aſide at ſuch a time; What the Queen ſaid to him at Another; How many Ladies fell out who ſhould have him to her ſelf; What Diſcourſe pafs'd; Where he is to Eat tomorrow; What Company; What Diſhes; What Wine; Who Loves Who; and what Intrigues are afoot in Church and State, &c. Without More Words I cannot Hear the Chat, or ſſee the Vanity of theſe Pragmatical Empty Buſie-Bodies without thinking of the Fly in the Fable. And This Application was the True End of Writing it.
Fab. XXXV.
A Frog and an Oxe.
AS a Huge Over-grown Oxe was Grazing in a Meadow, an Old Envious Frog that ſtood Gaping at him hard by, call'd out to her Little Ones, to take Notice of the Bulk of That Monſtrous Beaſt; and ſee, ſays ſhe, if I don't make my ſelf now the Bigger of the Two. So ſhe Strain'd Once, and Twice, and went ſtill ſwelling on and on, till in the Conclusion ſhe Forc'd her ſelf, and Burſt.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
Twenty
