Favourite Fables in Prose and Verse | Page 7

the people flocked:
And, as 'tis usual in such case,?Began to run them down apace;?The soil was poor, the farm ill stocked:
In short, a barren, miserable place,?Scarce worth th' expense to draw a lease.
One bolder, tho' not wiser than the rest,
Offered to pay in so much rent,?Provided he had Jove's consent?To guide the weather just as he thought best;
Or wet, or dry; or cold, or hot;?Whate'er he asked should be his lot;
To all which Jove gave a consenting nod.
The seasons now obsequious stand,?Quick to obey their lord's command,?And now the Farmer undertakes the god;
Now calls for sunshine, now for rains,?Dispels the clouds, the wind restrains;
But still confined within his farm alone,?He makes a climate all his own;
For when he sheds, or when he pours,?Refreshing dews, or soaking showers,
His neighbours never share a drop;?So much the better for their crop;?Each glebe a plenteous harvest yields;?Whilst our director spoils his fields.
Next year, he tries a different way;?New moulds the seasons, and directs again;
But all in vain:?His neighbour's grounds still thrive while his decay.
What does he do in this sad plight??For once he acted right:?He to the god his fate bemoaned,?Asked pardon, and his folly owned.?Jove, like a tender master, fond to save,?His weakness pityed, and his fault forgave.
MORAL.
He, who presumes the ways of heaven to scan,?Is not a wise, nor yet a happy man:?In this firm truth securely we may rest,--?Whatever Providence ordains is best;?Had man the power, he'd work his own undoing;?To grant his will would be to cause his ruin.
FABLE XXIII.
THE VAIN JACKDAW.
A CERTAIN Jackdaw was so proud and ambitious that, not contented to live within his own sphere, he picked up the feathers which fell from the Peacocks, stuck them among his own, and very?confidently introduced himself into an assembly of those?beautiful birds. They soon found him out, stripped him of his borrowed plumes, and falling upon him with their sharp bills, punished him as his presumption deserved.
Upon this, full of grief and affliction, he returned to his old companions, and would have flocked with them again; but they, knowing his late life and conversation, industriously avoided him, and refused to admit him into their company; and one of them, at the same time, gave him this serious reproof: "If, friend, you could have been contented with your station, and had not disdained the rank in which nature had placed you, you had not been used so scurvily by those amongst whom you introduced yourself, nor suffered the notorious slight which we now think ourselves obliged to put upon you."
MORAL.
Great evils arise from vanity; for when we try to place ourselves in a position for which we are not fit, we are liable to be laughed at, and, when we would return to our former state, we find we have lost the esteem of our former friends.
FABLE XXIV.
THE VIPER AND THE FILE.
A VIPER, crawling into a smith's shop to seek for something to eat, cast her eyes upon a File, and darting upon it in a moment, "Now I have you," said she, "and so you may help yourself how you can; but you may take my word for it that I shall make a fine meal of you before I think of parting with you." "Silly wretch!" said the File, as gruff as could be, "you had much better be quiet, and let me alone; for, if you gnaw for ever, you will get nothing but your trouble for your pains. Make a meal of me, indeed! why, I myself can bite the hardest iron in the shop; and if you go on with your foolish nibbling I shall tear all the teeth out of your spiteful head before you know where you are."
MORAL.
Take care that you never strive with those who are too strong for you, nor do spiteful things, lest you suffer for it.
FABLE XXV.
THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.
One hot, sultry day, a Wolf and a Lamb happened to come just at the same time to quench their thirst in the stream of a clear, silver brook, that ran tumbling down the side of a rocky?mountain. The Wolf stood upon the higher ground, and the Lamb at some distance from him down the current. However, the Wolf, having a mind to pick a quarrel with him, asked him what he meant by disturbing the water, and making it so muddy that he could not drink, and at the same time demanded satisfaction. The Lamb, frightened at this threatening charge, told him, in a tone as mild as possible, that, with humble submission, he could not conceive how that could be, since the water which he drank ran down from the Wolf to him, and therefore it could not be?disturbed so far up the stream. "Be that as it will," replies the Wolf, "you are a rascal; and