Page:Fables of Aesop.pdf/2



A brisk young Cock, raking upon a dunghill for something to peck, happened to scrape up a jewel. He knew very well what it was, but not knowing what to do with it, he turned it over and over in a contemptuous manner, shook his head, and putting on a grimace, expressed himself to this purpose: "Indeed you are a fine thing, but I know not any business you have here: I make no scruple of declaring, that my taste lies quite another way; and I had rather have one grain of dear delicious barley, than all the jewels under the sun."

A wise man judges not of things by appearances.

A Jackdaw, observing that the Pigeons in a certain dovecot lived well, and wanted for nothing, white-washed his feathers, and went and lived with them. The Pigeons, not knowing the cheat, forbore to give him any disturbance. But at last he began to chatter, when the the [sic] Pigeons, discovering what he was, obliged him to fly back to the Jackdaws; but they did not know him in his discoloured feathers, and so drove him off likewise; so that he who had endeavoured to be more than he had a right to, was not permitted to be any thing at all.

Make not unfounded pretensions; profess to be only what you are.