Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/467

Rh Gard'ner, I am not to be Fool'd with a Parcel of Fair VVords: You have Nothing for Digging ‘tis True; but pray who et you at VVork? Is it for my Service dye think, to have my Plants and my Herbs torn up by the Roots? And what's your bu'nes at lat, but by doing all you can for the filling of your own Belly, to leave me nothing to Eat?

Here was a Weazle taken in a Trapp, and whether he hould Dye or not, was the Point: The Mater of the Houe Charg’d her with heavy Midemeanors, and the Poor Vermine tood much upon her Innocence and Merit. Why ays he, I keep your Houe clear of Mice. Well, ays the Man, but you do't for your Own ake, not for Mine. What work would they make in the Pantry and the Larder, (ays he) if it were not for me? And in the mean time (ays the Mater of the Houe) You your Self devour the ame things that they would have Eaten, Mice and All: But you would fain ham it upon me, that you do me a Service, when in Truth you do mean Injury; and therefore you deerve a double Death; Firt, For the Fault it elf, and then for the Jutification of it.

’s nothing Commoner in this World then the Cae of the Mole here and the Weazle: That is to ay, the Cae of People that Value themelves mightily upon Merit; when in the mean time they do only their own Bu'nes. What Virtue is it for me to do another Man good by Chance; or where's the Obligation of doing it for my own Profit? 'Tis the Will of a Man that qualifies the Action. A Body may do me Good, and yet Deerve to be Punih’d for't. He may ave my Life for the purpoe, with an Intention to take it away. There is however ome Regard to be had to the very Intrument that Providence makes ue of for our Advantage. But this is out of a Repect to the Providence, not to the Man: And we are not yet come up to the Force of the