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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| XII. | FABLE XII. The Lion superannuated: |
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 | Truth in Fiction |  |
FABLE XII. The Lion superannuated:
Or, False Friends, base Enemies.
A
Lion, that in heat of Youth and Blood,
With fierce Exorbitance disturb'd the Wood,
Injur'd his Fellows, and provok'd their Rage,
Met just Revenge in his declining Age.
The Boar and Bull, with pointed Tusk and Horn,
Defie his Anger, and his Weakness scorn:
Ev'n the dull Ass, to give unusu'l Proof
Of active Warmth, insults him with his Hoof.
At which Indignity, the gen'rous Beast
Thus his Resentment, with deep sighs, express'd:
With fierce Exorbitance disturb'd the Wood,
Injur'd his Fellows, and provok'd their Rage,
Met just Revenge in his declining Age.
The Boar and Bull, with pointed Tusk and Horn,
Defie his Anger, and his Weakness scorn:
Ev'n the dull Ass, to give unusu'l Proof
Of active Warmth, insults him with his Hoof.
16
Thus his Resentment, with deep sighs, express'd:
I justly bear return'd Affronts, from those
Whom former Injuries have made my Foes;
But by this Sluggard to be thus abus'd,
Whom I have always serv'd, and kindly us'd,
This pierces deeper than the Wounds they give:
In what mistaken Measures did I live,
That while such pow'rful Enemies I made,
I chose no Friends, but who my Choice upbraid?
Whom former Injuries have made my Foes;
But by this Sluggard to be thus abus'd,
Whom I have always serv'd, and kindly us'd,
This pierces deeper than the Wounds they give:
In what mistaken Measures did I live,
That while such pow'rful Enemies I made,
I chose no Friends, but who my Choice upbraid?
The MORAL.
‘While thou art Great, be Good; on no Pretence‘Exert thy Pow'r to offer Violence:
‘For injur'd Sufferers will wait a Change,
‘And find their time to take a sharp Revenge.
‘Be therefore cautious to distinguish Friends,
‘Who seek thy Int'rest, who their private Ends:
‘For they who court thee only on Design,
‘Will prove thy Fortune's Followers, not thine:
‘Shadows they are, that, when the Sun declines,
‘Forsake the Things they wait on, while it shines.
| Truth in Fiction | |