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Truth in Fiction

Or, Morality in Masquerade. A Collection of Two hundred twenty five Select Fables of Aesop, and other Authors. Done into English Verse. By Edmund Arwaker
  

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FABLE LXI. The Fox and Weesel:

Or, Much Wealth, much Woe.

A Fox, with tedious fasting, lank and thin,
Found Pullets in a Coop, and soon crept in:
There, to excess, the Glutton fell to eat,
And, till too full, near thought of a retreat.

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Pleas'd to return, when he cou'd stuff no more,
He found the Passage straiter than before:
He strove, he stretch'd, and shrunk himself, in vain;
But cou'd not Egress now, as Ingress, gain.
A Weesel that stood by, and hugg'd the Jest,
Cry'd, Sir, you take much Pains to be releas'd:
If to get out, as you got in, you mean,
Do Penance there, till you become as Lean.

The MORAL.

‘Men who Contented in mean Fortunes live,
‘Enjoy the mod'rate Blessings they receive:
‘But when too greedily they covet more,
‘And with pernicious haste improve their Store;
‘They find the Change injurious to their Peace;
‘For, as their Treasures, so their Cares encrease.