Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/87

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Here happen'd a Warm Dipute betwixt an Ant and a Fly, Why, Where's the Honour, or the Pleaure in the World, ays the Fly, that I have not My Part in? Are not All Temples and Palaces Open to me? Am not I the Tater to Gods and Princes, in All their Sacrifices and Entertainments? Am I not erv'd in Gold and Silver? And is not my Meat and Drink till of the Bet? And all This, without either Mony or Pains. I Trample upon Crowns, and Kis what Ladies Lips I pleae. And what have You now to Pretend to all this While? Why, ays the Ant, You Value Your elf upon the Acces You have to the Altars of the Gods, the Cabinets of Princes, and to All Publick Feats and Collations: And what's all This but the Acces of an Intruder, not of a Guet. For People are o far from Liking Your Company, that they Kill ye as fat as they can Catch ye. You're a Plague to 'em Wherever You Come. Your very Breath has Maggots in't, and for the Kie you Brag of, what is it but the Perfume of the Lat Dunghil you Touch'd upon, once Remov'd? For My Part, I live upon what's my Own, and Work Honetly in the Summer to Maintain my elf in the Winter; Whereas the whole Coure of Your Scandalous Life, is only Cheating or Sharping, one Half of the Year, and Starving, the Other.

Fable Marks out to us the Difference betwixt the Empty Vanity of Otentation, and the Subtantial Ornaments of Virtue. It hews that the Happines of Life does not lie o much in the Enjoying of mall Advantages, as in living free from Great Inconveniences, and that an Honet Mediocrity is Bet. The Fly tands up for the Pride, the Luxury, and the Ambition of Courts, in the preference of Palaces, to Caves, and Private Retreats. The Ant contents her elf with the Virtue of Sobriety, Retirement, and Moderation: She lives upon her Own, Honetly Gotten and Poes'd, without either Envy or Violence; Whereas the Fly is an Intruder, and a Common Smell-Feat, that Spunges upon Other peoples Trenchers. Rh