Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/121

Rh Now if you'll go along with Me, and do as I do, you may fare as I fare. The Wolfe Struck up the Bargain, and o away they Trotted together: But as they were Jogging on, the Wolfe py'd a Bare Place about the Dogs Neck, where the Hair was worn off, Brother (ays he) how comes this I prethee? Oh, That’s Nothing, ays the Dog, but the Fretting of my Collar a little. Nay, ays T'other, if there be a Collar in the Cae, I know Better Things than to ell my Liberty for a Crut.

This Emblem is et forth the Bleing of Liberty, and the Sordid Meannes of thoe Wretches that acrifice their Freedom to their Luts, and their Palates. What Man in his Right Senes, that has wherewithal to Live Free, would make himelf a Slave for Superfluities! The Wolfe would have been well enough Content to have Barter’d away a Ragged Coat, and a Raw: Bon’d Carcafs, for a Smooth and a Fat One; but when they came to talk of a Collar once, away Marches He to His Old Trade in the Woods again, and makes the Better Choice of the Two.

To peak to the Firt Point, we are lyable to be Impos'd upon by Outides aud Appearances, for want of Searching things to the Bottom, and Examining what Really they are, and what they Only eem to be. This Fiction of the Wolfe, is a Reproof to Eager Appetites, and Over-Haty Judgments, that will not give themelves time to Ballance Accounts, and Compute Before hand, whether they are to get or Loe by the Bargain. It holds as well againt Intemperate Curioities, and Rah Wihes, That is to ay, againt the Folly of the One, and the Wickednes of the Others for if we come once to take Evil for Good, our very Prayers are turn'd into Sin: But what with a Certain Itch of Prying into, and Meddling with Other Peoples Matters, and a Natural Levity that puts us upon Shifting and Changing, we fall inenibly into a Thouand Inconveniencies: and when it comes to That once, that we find our elves Uneaie at Home, and no Reting-Place in our Own Thoughts, (where Ret is Only to be had) we are e'en glad to run away from our Selves, and Hunt abroad for’t where ‘tis never to be found. This is the Common Root of all our Wandrings and Errors. We Spend our Time, and our Peace, in Puruit of Things wholly Forreign to our Buines, and which will Certainly Deceive us at lat.

Thus it Is, and Thus it mut be, o long as we take Every thing by a Wrong Handle, and only Calculate upon our Own Misfortunes, without any Allowance for the Comforts that we Enjoy. And fo we reckon upon our Neighbours Enjoyments, on the Other hand, without any Conideration for the Hardhips that They Endure. Oh that I had but uch a Palace! Says One; Such an Elate; Such a Retinue; This Glorious Train; That Lovely Woman, &c. Nay the Envious Freak Decends to the very Point