Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LXII.

A Father and his Sons.

IT was the Hap of a very Honest Man to be the Father of a Contentious Brood of Children. He call'd for a Rod, and bad ‘em Take it, and Try One after Another with All their Force, if they could Break it. They Try'd, and could not. Well (says he) Unbind it now, and take Every Twig of it apart, and see what you can do That Way. They Did so, and with Great Ease, by One and One, they snapt it all to pieces. This (says he) is the, True Emblem of Your Condition. Keep Together and Y'are Safe, Divide, and Y'are Undone.

The Moral.

The Breach of unity puts the World, and All that’s in’t, into a State of War, and turns Every Man's Hand against his Brother; but so long as the Band holds, ’tis the Strength of All the Several Parts of it Gather'd into One.

REFLEXION.

This is to Intimate the Force of Union, and the Danger of Division. What has it been but Division that has Expos’d Christendom to the Enemies of the Christian Faith? And it is as Ruinous in Private as 'tis in Publique. A Divided Family can no more Stand, than a Divided Common Wealth; for every Individual Suffers in the Neglect of a Common Safety. 'Tis a Strange Thing that Men should not do That under the Government of a Rational Spirit and a Natural Prudence, which Wolves and Boares do by the Impulse of an Animal Instinct. For they, we see, will make Head, One and All against a Common Enemy; whereas the Generality of Mankind lye Pecking at One Another, till One by One, they are all Torn to Pieces, Never considering (with the Father here) the Necessity and Strength of Union.