Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable VIII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. VIII.

A Wolf and a Crane.

A Wolf had got a Bone in’s Throat, and could think of no better Instrument to Ease him out of it, than the Bill of a Crane; so he went and Treated with a Crane to help him out with it, upon Condition of a very considerable Reward for his pains. The Crane did him the Good Office, and then claim’d his Promise. Why how now Impudence! (says t’other) Do you put your head into the Mouth of a Wolf, and then, when y’ave brought it out again safe and sound, do you talk of a Reward? Why Sirrah, you have your Head again, and is not that a Sufficient Recompence?

The Moral.

One Good Turn they say requires another: But yet He that has to do with Wild Beasls (as some Men are No Better) and comes off with a Whole Skin, let him Expect No Other Reward.

REFLEXION.

This Fable will bear Divers Morals; as First, That it is but Due Gratitude to be Thankful to our Preservers. Secondly, The Crane's Good Fortune can hardly Excuse his Facility. And then the Crane did Ill again to Insist upon a Reward; for a Good Office pays it self; neither was he reasonably to Expect that so Perfidious a Creature should keep Touch with him. Thirdly, Though the Wolf was to blame for not making Good his Promise, there is yet in Equity a kind of a Reward, in not Chopping off his Head when he had it at Mercy.

The Case of the Crane here, is a Case of Conscience; for 'tis a Nice Business to Determine, how far Wicked Men in their Distresses May be Reliev'd; How far they Ought to be Reliev'd; and to what Degree of Loss, Labor, and Difficulty, a Sober, a Wise, and a Good Man may Interpose to their Redress. He may Give; he may Lend, he may Venture, so far as Generosity and Good Nature shall prompt him; provided always that he go no farther than the Conscience of the Cause, or of the Action will Warrant him. A Man is at Liberty, 'tis true, to do many Kind and Brave Offices, which he is not Bound to do: And if the Largeness of his Heart shall carry him beyond the Line of Necessary Prudence, we may reckon upon it only as a more Illustrious Weakness.

Here is a Fiction of One Crane that scap'd, that there might not want One Instance of an Encouragement to a Dangerous Act of Charity: But this One Instance is not yet sufficient to justifie the making a Common Practice of it, upon the same Terms. 'Tis possible for One Blot not to be Hit; or to be Over-seen perhaps. And so 'tis as possible for One Ill Man, either not to think of the Mischief he could do, or to flip the Occasion of it; but such a Deliverance however, is a Thing to Thank Providence for, without standing upon a Reward for the Service. The Bone in the Throat of the Wolf may be Understood of any fort of Pinch, or Calamity, either in Body, Liberty, or Fortune. How many do we fee Daily, Gaping and Struggling with Bones in their Throats, that when they have gotten them drawn out, have Attempted the Ruine of their Deliverers! The World, in short, is full of Practices and Examples to Answer the Intent of this Fable; and there are Thousands of Consciences that will be Touch'd with the Reading of it, whose Names are not written in their Foreheads.