. Fables of Aesop and others. eserve no better! Why did welet him come in? THE APPLICATION. What can this Fable be applied to, but the exceeding blind-ness and stupidity of that part of mankind, who wantonly andfoolishly trust their native rights of liberty, without good secu-rity; who often choose for guardians of their lives and fortunes,persons abandoned to the most unsociable vices; and seldomhave any better excuse for such an error in politics, than, thatthey were deceived in their expectation; or never thoroughlyknew the manners of their king, till he had got them entirelyinto his power;
. Fables of Aesop and others. eserve no better! Why did welet him come in? THE APPLICATION. What can this Fable be applied to, but the exceeding blind-ness and stupidity of that part of mankind, who wantonly andfoolishly trust their native rights of liberty, without good secu-rity; who often choose for guardians of their lives and fortunes,persons abandoned to the most unsociable vices; and seldomhave any better excuse for such an error in politics, than, thatthey were deceived in their expectation; or never thoroughlyknew the manners of their king, till he had got them entirelyinto his power; which, however, is notoriously false, for many,with the doves in the Fable, are so silly, that they would admitof a Kite, rather than be without a king. The truth is, we oughtnot to incur the possibility of being deceived in so important amatter as this; an unlimited power should not be trusted in lliehands of any one, who is not endowed with a perfection morethan human. ^SOPS FABLES. 51 FAB. XVII. The Man and his two A man, in times when polygamy was allowed, hadtwo wives; one of which, like himself, had seen herbest days, and was just as it were entering upon thedeclivity of life; but this, being an artful woman, sheentirely concealed by her dress; by which, and someother elegant qualities, she made a shift sometimes toengage her husbands heart. The other was a beau-tiful young creature of seventeen, whose charms, asyet in the height of bloom, and secure of their ownpower, had no occasion to call in any artifice to theirassistance. She made the good man as happy as hewas capable of being, but was not, it seems, complete-ly so herself; the gray hairs, mixt among the black,upon her husbands head, gave her some uneasiness,by proclaiming some great disparity of their years,wherefore, under colour of adjusting and combing hishead, she would every now and then be twitching thesilver hairs with her nippers; that, however matters 62 ^SOFS FABLES. were, he might still have as
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