Favourite Fables in Prose and Verse | Page 3

is inclined to
dispute my right to the fourth, let him speak." Awed by the majesty of
his frown, and the terror of his paws, they silently withdrew, resolving
never to hunt again but with their equals.
MORAL.
Be certain that those who have great power are honest before you place
yourselves in their hands, or you will be deprived of your just rights.
FABLE V.

THE DOVE AND THE ANT.
The Ant, compelled by thirst, went to drink in a clear, purling rivulet;
but the current, with its circling eddy, snatched her away, and carried
her down the stream. A Dove, pitying her
distressed condition,
cropped a branch from a neighbouring tree and let it fall into the water,
by means of which the Ant saved herself and got ashore. Not long after,
a Fowler, having a design against the Dove, planted his nets in due
order, without the bird's observing what he was about; which the Ant
perceiving, just as he was going to put his design into execution, she bit
his heel, and made him give so sudden a start, that the Dove took the
alarm, and flew away.
MORAL.
Kindness to others seldom fails of its reward; and none is so weak that
he may not be able in some fashion to repay it. Let us show kindness
without looking for a return, but a blessing will surely follow.
FABLE VI.
THE FOX WITHOUT A TAIL.
A FOX being caught in a steel trap by his tail, was glad to compound
for his escape with the loss of it; but on coming abroad into the world,
began to be so sensible of the disgrace such a defect would bring upon
him, that he almost wished he had died rather than left it behind him.
However, to make the best of a bad matter, he formed a project in his
head to call an assembly of the rest of the Foxes, and propose it for
their imitation as a fashion which would be very agreeable and
becoming. He did so, and made a long harangue upon the
unprofitableness of tails in general, and endeavoured chiefly to show
the awkwardness and inconvenience of a Fox's tail in
particular;
adding that it would be both more graceful and more expeditious to be
altogether without them, and that, for his part, what he had only
imagined and conjectured before, he now found by experience; for that
he never enjoyed himself so well, nor found himself so easy as he had
done since he cut off his tail. He said no more, but looked about with a

brisk air to see what proselytes he had gained; when a sly old Fox in
the company, who understood trap, answered him, with a leer, "I
believe you may have found a
conveniency in parting with your tail;
and when we are in the same circumstances, perhaps we may do so
too."
[Illustration: THE FOX WITHOUT A TAIL.]
MORAL.
It is common for men to wish others reduced to their own level, and we
ought to guard against such advice as may proceed from this principle.
FABLE VII.
THE BUTTERFLY AND THE SNAIL.
As in the sunshine of the morn,
A Butterfly, but newly born,
Sat
proudly perking on a rose,
With pert conceit his bosom glows;
His
wings, all glorious to behold,
Bedropt with azure, jet and gold,

Wide he displays; the spangled dew
Reflects his eyes, and various
hue.
His now forgotten friend, a Snail,
Beneath his house, with slimy trail,

Crawls o'er the grass; whom, when he spies,
In wrath he to the
gardener cries:
"What means yon peasant's daily toil,
From choaking weeds to rid the
soil?
Why wake you to the morning's care?
Why with new arts
correct the year?
Why glows the peach with crimson hue?
And why
the plum's inviting blue?
Were they to feast his taste designed,
That
vermin, of voracious kind?
Crush, then, the slow, the pilf'ring race;

So purge thy garden from disgrace."
"What arrogance!" the Snail replied;
"How insolent is upstart pride!

Hadst thou not thus, with insult vain,
Provoked my patience to

complain,
I had concealed thy meaner birth,
Nor traced thee to the
scum of earth:
For, scarce nine suns have wak'd the hours,
To swell
the fruit, and paint the flowers,
Since I thy humbler life surveyed,

In base, in sordid guise arrayed;
A hideous insect, vile, unclean,

You dragg'd a slow and noisome train;
And from your spider-bowels
drew
Foul film, and spun the dirty clue.
I own my humble life, good
friend;
Snail was I born, and Snail shall end.
And what's a Butterfly?
At best,
He's but a Caterpillar, dress'd;
And all thy race (a numerous
seed)
Shall prove of Caterpillar breed."
MORAL.
All upstarts, insolent in place,
Remind us of their vulgar race.
FABLE VIII.
THE WOLF AND THE CRANE.
A WOLF, after too greedily devouring his prey, happened to have a
bone stick in his throat, which gave him so much pain that he went
howling up and down, and