Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/467

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Gard'ner, I am not to be Fool'd with a Parcel of Fair VVords: You have Nothing for Digging ‘tis True; but pray who ſet you at VVork? Is it for my Service dye think, to have my Plants and my Herbs torn up by the Roots? And what's your buſ'neſs at laſt, but by doing all you can for the filling of your own Belly, to leave me nothing to Eat?

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Fab.. CCCCXLI.

A Man and a Weazle.

THere was a Weazle taken in a Trapp, and whether ſhe ſhould Dye or not, was the Point: The Maſter of the Houſe Charg’d her with heavy Miſdemeanors, and the Poor Vermine ſtood much upon her Innocence and Merit. Why ſays ſhe, I keep your Houſe clear of Mice. Well, ſays the Man, but you do't for your Own ſake, not for Mine. What work would they make in the Pantry and the Larder , (ſays ſhe) if it were not for me? And in the mean time (ſays the Maſter of the Houſe) You your Self devour the ſame things that they would have Eaten, Mice and All: But you would fain ſham it upon me, that you do me a Service, when in Truth you do mean Injury; and therefore you deſerve a double Death; Firſt, For the Fault it ſelf, and then for the Juſtification of it.

The Moral of the Two Fables above.

'Tis according to the Courſe of thoſe Kind Offices in the World, which we call Friendſhip, to do one another Good for our Own Sakes.

REFLEXION.

There’s nothing Commoner in this World then the Caſe of the Mole here and the Weazle: That is to ſay, the Caſe of People that Value themſelves mightily upon Merit; when in the mean time they do only their own Buſ'neſs. What Virtue is it for me to do another Man good by Chance; or where's the Obligation of doing it for my own Profit? 'Tis the Will of a Man that qualifies the Action. A Body may do me Good, and yet Deſerve to be Puniſh’d for't. He may ſave my Life for the purpoſe, with an Intention to take it away. There is however ſome Regard to be had to the very Inſtrument that Providence makes uſe of for our Advantage. But this is out of a Reſpect to the Providence, not to the Man: And we are not yet come up to the Force of theFable