The moral of this Fable principally instructs us not to be too
credulous in believing the insinuations of those who are already
distinguished by their want of faith and honesty, for perfidious
people ought ever to be suspected in the reports that favour their own
interest. When, therefore, any such would draw us into a compliance
with their destructive measures, by a pretended civility, or plausible
relation, we should consider such proposals as a bait, artfully
placed to conceal some fatal hook, which is intended to draw us into
danger; and if by any simple counterplot we can unmask the design and
defeat the schemes of the wicked, it will not only be innocent, but
praise-worthy.
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