Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/177

Rh vantage, will Betray Another fer a Better Price. But as all manner of Treachery is Abominable in the Sight both of God and Man, and tands Reprehended in this Fable: So there are Certain Kinds and Degrees of it, that are yet more Execrable and Odious, One then Another. There is firt a Treachery by Complexion, which was the Partridges Cae. Her Heart Fail’d her, and he would fain have Compounded for her Own Life, by the Betraying of her Fellows. This was an Unhappy Infirmity, but the Weaknes all this while, does not Exeue the Perfidy, though it may eem in ome Meaure to Extenuate the Crime, by the Poor Creatures lying under almot an Inuperable Frailty. The Fowler however made an Example of her for a Terror to Others. Now if a Treachery of this Quality be o Unpardonable, what hall we fay to Thoe Judas'es, that Dip in the Dih with their Maters, and then for o many Pieces of Silver, deliver them up to be Crucify’d? What hall we ay to Thoe that Sell their Country, their Souls, and their Religion, for Mony, and Rate Divinity. at o much a Pound? And then to Conummare the Wickednes, Finih the Work with Malice, that they began with Avarice.

Hat a Dull Heavy Creature (ays a Hare) is This ame Tortoie! And yet (ays the Tortoie) I'll run with you for a Wager. 'Twas Done and Done, and the Fox, by Conent, was to be the Judg. They tarted together, and the Tortoie kept Jogging on till, ‘till he came to the End of the Coure. The Hare lay'd himelf down about Mid-way, and took a Nap; for, ays he, I can fetch up the Tortoie when I pleae: But he Over-lept himelf it eems, for when he came to Wake, though he cuded away as fat as 'twas poible, the Tortoie got to the Pot before him, and Won the Wager.

Delays in All Preing Affairs are but jut o much time Lot, beide the Hazard of Intervening Contingencies that may Endanger a Total Diappointment. Let not the Work of to day be put off 'till to morrow; for the Future is Uncertain; and he that lyes down to Sleep in the Middle of Bus’nes that requires Action, does not know whether he hall live to wake again: Or with the Hare in the Fable here, Out-leep his Opportunity. A Plodding Diligence brings us ooner