to one to whom no one would trust his feet to be fitted with shoes?”

    This, I should say with good reason, is aimed at those through whose folly impudence makes a profit.

    In a change of government, the poor change nothing beyond the name of their master. That this is the fact this little Fable shows.

    A timorous Old Man was feeding an Ass

     in

    a meadow. Frightened by a sudden alarm of the enemy, he tried to persuade the Ass to fly, lest they should be taken prisoners. But he leisurely replied: “Pray, do you suppose that the conqueror will place double panniers upon me?” The Old Man said, “No.” “Then what matters it to me, so long as I have to carry my panniers, whom I serve?”

    When a rogue offers his name as surety in a doubtful case, he has no design to act straight-forwardly, but is looking to mischief.

    A Stag asked a Sheep for a measure

     I.17

    of wheat, a Wolf being his surety. The other, however, suspecting fraud,

     replied

    : “The Wolf has always been in the habit of plundering and absconding; you, of rushing out of sight with rapid flight: where am I to look for you both when the day comes?”

     I.18

    Liars generally

     I.19

    pay the penalty of their guilt.

    A Dog, who was a false accuser, having demanded of a Sheep a loaf of bread, which he affirmed he had entrusted to her charge; a Wolf, summoned as a witness, affirmed that not only one was owing but ten. Condemned on false testimony, the Sheep had to pay what she did not owe. A few days after, the Sheep saw the Wolf lying in a pit. “This,” said she, “is the reward of

     villany

    , sent by the Gods.”

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