Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/127

Rh 'Tis the Fortune of many a Good Man to fall into Bad Company, and to be Undone by’t, and yet no way Guilty all this while, of the Iniquity of his Companions. The Letter of the Law Sweeps All in uch a Cae, without Ditinction of Perons: To fay Nothing of the Shame and Dihonour of being taken up with Rogues and Felons; over and above the Lah of Publique Jutice, and the Contagion of a Lewd Converation, Shew me the Company (ays the Adage) and I'll tell ye the Man. What would a body think now of a Prime Miniter that hould Conjobble Matters of State with Tumblers and Buffoons; Conferr Politiques with Tinkers and Carr-men? would not any man Judge their Souls to be of the ame Standard and Allay? And that there were no mere betwixt them then Cros or Pile, which hould be the Lord, and which the Scoundrel? Or, according to the Fable, which the Stork and which the Gooe? For ’tis not the Purple, but the Virtue that makes a man of Honour; truly o call'd.

Shepherd Boy had gotten a Roguy Trick of crying [a Wolfe, a Wolfe] when there was No uch Matter, and Fooling the Country People with Fale Alarums. He had been at This Sport o many times in Jet, that they would not Believe him at lat when he was in Earnet: And o the Wolves Brake in upon the Flock, and Worry'd the Sheep at Pleaure.

A Common Lyar (ays the Old Moral) hall not be Believ'd, even when he peaks True: But there's a Great deal more in't, of which hereafter.

There's not One Man of a Thouand that Undertands the Jut, the Safe, Warrantable, Decent, and Precie Limits of that which we call Bantering, or Fooling: But it is either too Coure, too Rude, too Childih, too Bitter, too Much on’t, too Pedantique; and in fine, out of Meaure, or out of Seaon. Now the Leat Errour or Mitake in the Manage of This Humour, lays People Open to Great Cenure, and Reproach. It is not Every man's Talent to know When and How to Cat out a Pleaant Word, with uch a Regard to Modety and Repect, as not to Trangres the True,