Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/183

Rh promife you he hath poken verie clarkly. Surely he is able to doe vs good eruice at all times when we call him. And to conclude my deare Lords, vertue cannot longe bee hidden, albeit for a time by ome euill accident it be oppreed. Flame and fire alo couered with violence, when it burteth out againe, heweth the greater, and maketh waye where it commeth. Beholde how orderly hee came to me. And though we cannot knowe his inwarde minde, and that it were not that it heweth: yet is it fitting for a noble Prince to entertaine him that commeth, not knowing him at all. Although the Needle pricketh, yet a man occupieth it to erue his turne, and is as necearie as a Knife. Wee will place euery one in his rowme. The firt eate is for the Elephantes, the other for the Camels; the Apes in their place, and o forth, to ve eche one according to his degree and calling. For the nailes may not be placed where the teeth are, nor the teethe where the eyes tande, much lee the eyes in place of the heeles: but let euery member doe in his place his office pertayning to him. A man to feede Serpents, were a trange ight and perillous. For he houlde not only tande in danger to haue his hande deuoured of the Serpent, but to be laine foorthwith alo with his pitting poyon. Our common weale is like vnto a bodie which