Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/466

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Cock was got into a Stable, and there was he Netling in the Straw among the Hores; and till as the Fit took ‘em, they'd be Stamping and Flinging, and laying about 'em with their Heels: So the Cock very gravely Admonih’d them; Pray my Good Friends, let us have a Care, ays he, that we don't Tread upon One Another.

ays many a Vain Fool in the World, as this Cock does in the Like Cae, and Expoes himelf to Scorn, as well as Detruction. ’Tis a neceary Point of Widom for People to ort themelves with fit Company, and to make a Right Judgment of their Converation. I do not mean in the matter of Morals only, where Vicious and ill Habits are Contagious; but there hould a Regard be had to the very Size, Quality and Degree of the Men that we Frequent: For where the Diproportion is very great, a Man may be Ruin’d without Malice, and Cruh’d to Pieces by the Weight even of One that has a Kindnes for him. Now where we Misjudge the Matter, a Micarriage draws Pity after it, but when we are Tranported by Pride and Vanity into o Dangerous an Affectation, our Ruin lies at our own Door.



Gard'ner took a Mole in his Grounds, and the Quetion was, whether he hould put her to Death or no. The Mole Pleaded that he was one of his Family, and Digg’d his Garden for Nothing : Nay, he Inited upon’t, what Pity ‘twas to Detroy a Creature that had o mooth a Skin, and Twenty other Little Pretences. Come, come, ays the