Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/258

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Here was a Freak took an As in the Head, to Scoure a broad upon the Ramble; and away he goes into the Woods, Maquerading up and down in a Lyon's Skin. The World was his Own for a while, and wherever he went, Man and Beat Fled before him: But he had the Hap in the Concluion, partly by his Voice, and partly by his Ears, to be Dicover'd, and conequently Uncas’d, well Laugh’d at, and well Cudgell’d for his Pains.

THERE’s Nothing more Frequent, or more Ridiculous in the World, then for an As to Dres himelf up like a Lyon: A Dunce ets up for a Doctor; a Beggar for a Man of Etate; a Scoundrel for a Cavalier; a Polrcon for a Sword-man: But Every Fool till has ome Mark or other to be Known by, thorough All Diguies; and the More he takes upon him, the Arranter Sot he makes Himelf, when he comes to be Unmaqu'd.

Every Fool, or Fools Fellow, carries More or Les, in his Face, the Signature of his Manners, though the Character may be much more Legible in ome, then in Others; As the As was found out by his Voice and by his Ears. Let him keep his Words betwixt his Teeth, and he may pas Muter perhaps for a Man of ome Sene; but if he comes to Open once, he's Lot: For Nature never put the Tongue of a Philoopher into the Mouth of a Coxcomb: But however, let him be, in truth, what he Will he is yet o Concious of what he Ought to be, that he makes it his Buines to pas for what he is not: And in the Matter of Counterfeits, it is with Men, as it is with Fale Mony: One Piece is more or les Paable then Another, as it happens to have more or les Sene, or Sterling in the Mixture. One General Mark of an Impotor is This; That he Out-does the Original; As the As here in the Lyon-skin, made Fifty times more Clutter then the Lyon would have done in his Own; And Himelf Fifty times the more Ridiculous for the Diguie.

If a Man turn his Thoughts now from This Fancy in the Forret, to the Sober Truth of Daily Experience in the World, he hall find Aes in the Skins of Men, Infinitely more Contemptible then This As in the Skin of a Lyon. How many Terrible Aes have we een in the Garb of Men of Honour! How many Inipid, and Illiterate Fops, that take upon them to Retail Politiques, and it for the Picture of Men of State! How