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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Truth in Fiction | ||
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FABLE XLIII. The Bull and Goat:
Or, Afflict not the Afflicted.
A
Bull, to shun a Lion's close Pursuit,
Fled to a Cave, and met a greater Brute;
A Goat, that Sanctuary there deny'd,
And with his threatning Horns the Bull defy'd.
He, press'd by Fear, durst not delay so long
His present Safety, to revenge the Wrong;
But to the Goat said, with a gen'rous Slight,
You now, unpunish'd, may oppose my Flight;
But, were the Enemy I shun away,
For this rude Insolence shou'd dearly pay.
Fled to a Cave, and met a greater Brute;
A Goat, that Sanctuary there deny'd,
And with his threatning Horns the Bull defy'd.
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His present Safety, to revenge the Wrong;
But to the Goat said, with a gen'rous Slight,
You now, unpunish'd, may oppose my Flight;
But, were the Enemy I shun away,
For this rude Insolence shou'd dearly pay.
The MORAL.
‘He, who denies to succour the Distress'd,‘Puts off the Man, and represents the Beast:
‘But he, whose Injuries encrease their Woe,
‘Do's a more fierce and brutal Temper show:
‘And, when to him Fate proves alike unkind,
‘As little Pity as he shew'd, shou'd find.
Truth in Fiction | ||