Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/181

Rh

Fellow finding omewhat Prick him, Popt his Finger A upon the Place, and it prov'd to be a Flea. What art thou, ays he, for an Animal, to Suck thy Livelyhood out of My Carcas? Why 'tis the Livelyhood, (ays the Flea) that Nature has Allotted me, and My Stinging is not Mortal neither. Well, ays the Man, but 'tis Troubleome however; and now I Have ye, I ll ecure ye for ever Hurting me again, either Little or Much.

is as Natural for a Man to Kill a Flea, as it is for a Flea to Bite a Man. There's a kind of elf-Preervation on Both ides, and without Any Malice on Either Hand. The Flea cannot Live without Nourihment, nor the Man without Ret. So that here’s only a Preent Dipatch on the One Hand, to prevent a Lingring Death on the Other (as a Retles Life is in Truth no Better) There are in the World as many Illutrations of This Fable, as there are Intances of Petulant, Pragmatical, and Impertinent People that Break in upon Men of Government and Bus'nes. Ditractions have much in them of Flea-Bitings; That is to ay,