THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.

by Aesof
One hot, sultry day, a Wolf and a Lamb happened
to come, just at the same time, to quench
their thirst in the stream of a clear silver brook,
that ran tumbling down the side of a rocky
mountain. The Wolf stood upon the higher
ground, and the Lamb at some distance from
him down the current. However, the Wolf,
having a mind to pick a quarrel with him,
asked him, what he meant by disturbing the
water, and making it so muddy that he could
not drink and, at the same time, demanded
satisfaction. The Lamb, frightened at this
threatening charge, told him, in a tone as mild
as possible, that, with humble submission, he
could not conceive how that could be, since
the water which he drank, ran down from the
Wolf to him, and therefore it could not be
disturbed so far up the stream.  "Be that as it
will" replies the Wolf, '"you are a rascal, and
I have been told that you treated me with ill
language behind my back, about half a year
ago." " Upon my word" says the Lamb, " the
time you mention was before I was born."  The
Wolf, finding it to no purpose to argue any
longer against truth, fell into a great passion,
snarling and foaming at the mouth, as if
he had been mad and drawing nearer to
the Lamb, " Sirrah" says he,
"if it was not you, it was your father, and that is all one"
So he seized the poor, innocent, helpless
thing, tore it to pieces, and made a meal
of it.


MORAL:
The thing which is pointed at in this fable
is so obvious, that it will be impertinent to
multiply words about it. When a cruel ill-natured
man has a mind to abuse one inferior
to himself, either in power or courage, though
he has not given the least occasion for it, how
does he resemble the Wolf! whose envious,
rapacious temper could not bear to see innocence
live quietly in its neighborhood. In
short, wherever ill people are in power, innocence
and integrity are sure to be persecuted:
the more vicious the community is, the better
countenance they have for their own villainous
measures. To practice honesty in bad times,
is being liable to suspicion enough; but if any
one should dare to prescribe it, it is ten to one
but he would be impeached of high crimes and
misdemeanors: for to stand up for justice in
a degenerate and corrupt state, is tacitly to
upbraid the government, and seldom fails of
pulling down vengeance upon the head of him
that offers to stir in its defense. Where cruelty
and malice are in combination with power,
nothing is so easy as for them to find a pretense
to tyrannize over innocence, and exercise
all manner of injustice.