Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CLVI
Fab CLVI.
A Lyon, Fox, and a Wolfe.
THe King of Beasts was now grown Old, and Sickly, and All his Subjects of the Forrest, (saving only the Fox) were to pay their Duties to him. The Wolfe, and the Fox like a Couple of Sly Knaves, were still putting Tricks One upon Another, and the Wolfe took This Occasion to do the Fox a Good Office. I can Assure your Majesty, says the Wolfe, that 'tis Nothing but Pride and Insolence that keeps the Fox from shewing himself at Court as well as his Companions. Now the Fox had the Good Luck to be within Hearing, and so Presented himself before the Lyon, and finding him Extremely Enrag'd, begs his Majesties Patience, and a Little Time only for his Defence. Sir (says he) I must pressume to Value my self upon my Respect and Loyalty to your Majesty, Equal at least to any of your other Subjects; and I will be bold to say, that put them all together, they have not taken Half the pains for your Majesties Service now upon This very Occasion, that I have done. I have been Hunting up and down far and near, since your Unhappy Indispofition, to find out a Remedy for ye, which with much ado I have now Compass'd at last, and it is that which I Promise my self will Prove an Infallible Cure. Tell me immediately (says the Lyon) what it is then: Nothing in the World says the Fox, but to Flay a Wolfe Alive, and Wrap your Body up in the Warm Skin, The Wolfe was By all This while, and the Fox in a Snearing Way advis'd him for the Future, not to Irritate a Prince against his Subjects, but rather to Sweeten him with Peaceable, and Healing Councells.
The Moral.
REFLEXION.
There's Nothing more Common in the World then These Wolvish Back-Friends, in all our Pretensions; whether it be in Law, in Government, or in a Hundred other sorts of Clayme and Competition; Especially for the running down of a Man that's Declining in his Credit already. Calumny is Base at best; though Pleasant enough somctimes, where it falls out, that One Rascal is Countermining Another. But let the Reproach be never so True, it can hardly be Honest, Where the Office is done in Hugger-Mugger; and Where the Intention is not Guided by a Conscience of the Duty. It is a way to Confound the Good and the Bad, where Knaves have Credit enough to be Believ'd, to the Wrong of Honest Men, and the Innocent left without Means of Defence.
Hee that would live Cleare of the Envy and Hatred, of Potent Calumniators, must lay his Finger upon his Mouth, and keep his Hand out of the Ink-Pot; for to do a Good Office upon the Point of Opinion, Intelligence, Brains, or Conscience, where This Wolvish Humour prevayles, is little better then a Scandala Magnatum, or a Libel upon his Superiors: But where it happens, that there's a Fox and a Wolfe in the Case; and One Sharper to Encounter Another, the Scene is Diverting enough.