. Æsop's fables, embellished with one hundred and eleven emblematical devices . uug and little,and consequently not so well worth your while as1 shall be if you take me some lime hence, whenI am grown larger.—* That may be, replies theman, * but I am not one of those fools who quit acertainty, in expectation of an uncertainty. APPLICATION. This fable points much the same way as theseventy-sixtli, so that one moral may very well FABLE LXXVIII. 189 serve for both. But tlie lesson they teach is souseful and instructive, that a repetition of it is byno means superfluous. The precept which theywoul
. Æsop's fables, embellished with one hundred and eleven emblematical devices . uug and little,and consequently not so well worth your while as1 shall be if you take me some lime hence, whenI am grown larger.—* That may be, replies theman, * but I am not one of those fools who quit acertainty, in expectation of an uncertainty. APPLICATION. This fable points much the same way as theseventy-sixtli, so that one moral may very well FABLE LXXVIII. 189 serve for both. But tlie lesson they teach is souseful and instructive, that a repetition of it is byno means superfluous. The precept which theywould instil into us is, never to let slip the presentopportunity, but to secure to ourselves every littleadvantage, just in the nick that it oflers, withouta vain reliance upon, and fruitless expectation of,something better in time to come. We maycheer up our spirits with hoping for that whichwe cannot at present obtain; but at the same timelet us be sure we give no occasion of conderau-iiig ourselves for omitting any thing which it wasin our power to secure. 190 FABLE THE GEESE AND THE CRANES. A FLOCK of Geese and a parcel of Cranesused often to feed together in a corn field. Atlast the owner of the corn, with his servants,coming upon them of a sudden, surprised themin the very fact; and the geese, being heavy, fat,full-bodied creatures, vpere most of them suf-ferers; but the Cranes, being thin and light,easily flew away. APPLICATION. When the enemy comes to make a seizure,they are sure to suffer most whose circumstaucesare the richest and fattest. In anj case of per-secution, monej hangs like a dead weight abouta man; and we never feel gold so heavy as whenwe endeavour to make off with it. Thereforewise and politic ministers of stale, whenever thej-^ FABLE LXXIX. 191 5ee a storm begin to feather over their heads,always take care to unlade themselves of a goodpart of their cargo; and, by this means, seldomfind but the blasts of obloquj-, through which theyare to make t
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Keywords: ., bookauthoraesop, bookcentury1800, bookdec, booksubjectfablesgreek