Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCCXLVII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. CCCXLVII.

Pigeons Reconcile the Hawks.

THere Happen’d a Bloudy Civil War once among the Hawks, and what did the Poor, Peaceable, Innocent Pigeons, but in Pure Pity, and Good Nature, send their Deputies and Mediators to do the Best they could to make 'em Friends again, so long as This Feud Lasted; they were so Intent upon Killing one another, that they Minded nothing else; but no sooner was the Quarrel taken up among Themselves, then they fell to their Old sport again of Destroying the Pigeons. This brought them to a Sight of their Error, and to Understand the Danger of Uniting a Common Enemy to their Own Ruine,

The MORAL.

Good Men are never Safe but when Wicked Men are at Odds. So that the Divisions of the One are the Security of the Other.

REFLEXION.

'TIS a Hard Matter in This Case to Reconcile Policy, and Good Nature; or to bring a Plain-dealing Innocence into a Consistency with Necessary Prudence; For Singleness of Mind passes in the World for want of Brains, and where Knavery is in Credit, Honesty is sure to be a Drug: But Every Man must stand or fail to his Own Conscience, and so Divide the Mater as neither to Offend Christian Charity, nor Civil Discretion. The Blessing that is Proncunc'd upon the Peace-Makers does not Extend to Those Cases, where the Effect of the Peace shall be the Ruine of the Reconcilers. 'Tis Dangerous Parting a Fray, whether it be Jest or Earnest; tor there are Sham Quarrels as well as Bloody Ones: In the One, a Man runs the risque of his Hat, or his Cloak; In the Other, of his Life. We have liv'd to see This Fable remarkably Moraliz’d among our selves upon the like Occasion; for full as the Common Enemy were at Variance, we had a sort of Peace-making Pigeons that would needs be Reconciling them, though the Only Security they had under the Sun was Their Divisions.