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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 LIV. The Fowler and Owzel:
  
  
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171

FABLE LIV. The Fowler and Owzel:

Or, The Multitude of Subjects, the Prince's Safety.

An expert Fowler did his Nets prepare
For some unwary Natives of the Air.
An Owzel, that was on his Work intent,
Demanded what his Preparations meant?
The Man reply'd, I build a Town for you:
And, having finish'd his Design, withdrew.
The easie Bird, that his Pretence believ'd,
Flew to the Bait, and found her self deceiv'd.
When she observ'd the false Deluder come
To seize his Captive, and pronounce her Doom;
She thus to him her dying Speech address'd,
And her true Notion of his Cheat express'd:
If this be, Sir, the Town you have design'd,
You but a few Inhabitants will find.

The MORAL.

‘Tyrannick Princes, who delight in Blood,
‘For private Ends, destroy the Publick Good;
‘And sacrifice to their wild Insolence,
‘Their People's Lives, which are their chief Defence.
‘Then, weaken'd by their Arbitrary Sway,
‘To ev'ry Foe they are expos'd a Prey:
‘And their Dispeopl'd Kingdoms make it known,
‘Their Subjects Safety was no less their own.