Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CCCCXXI
Fab. CCCCXXI.
An Ass and a Shadow.
ONe Hir'd an Ass in the Dog-Days to carry certain Bails of Goods to such a Town: 'T'was Extream Hot, so that he lay down upon the Way to Refresh himself under the Shade of the Ass. The Muletier bad him Rise, and go on according to his Bargain. 'T other said that the Ass was His for the time he had Hir'd him. Right, says the other, You have Hir'd the Ass, but not the Shadow.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
This Fable Plays upon the Contentious Humour of People that go to Law for Trifles. De Asini Umbra, is effectully but this Fancy in an Adage. There needs no more to the setting of the whole World in a Flame, then a Quarrelsom Plaintiff and Defendent, and a Brace of Chicaneurs to Blow the Coals, Wrangling is Instructed as an Art or a Science on the one side, and made use of as an Exercise on the other. Some People can no more Live without Law, then without Air, and they reckon it better Husbandry to spend a Thousand Pound upon Counsel, to Defend a Trivial or an Unwarrantable Cause, then to part with one single Six Pence for the Payment of an Honest Debt. This Fable in short, is Moralliz'd in Westminster-Hall, Forty times over every Term.