This Fable is levelled against those worthless hirelings, who slide
over their time in negligent disorder, and this not so much for want of
capacity as honesty; their own private interest almost solely occupying
their attention, while that of their master, whose wages they receive,
and whose bread they eat, is postponed, or entirely neglected. Such
servants deserve not to be inmates in any good man’s house; but where
they are, it is absolutely necessary for the governors of families to
look into their affairs with their own eyes; for though they may happen
not to be in personal danger from the treachery of their domestics,
they are perpetually liable to injuries from their negligence, which
leaves the master open to the artifices of those who would defraud him.
Few families are reduced to poverty merely by their own extravagance:
the inattention of servants swells every article of expence in domestic
economy; and the retinue of great men, instead of exerting their
industry to increase their master’s wealth, commonly exercise no other
office than that of caterpillars, to consume and devour it. The fate
of the Stag also warns us not to engage in any hazardous speculation,
the success of which is to depend upon the ignorance or carelessness
of those with whom we have to deal; for though we may over-reach one
or two, yet some master-eye is sure at last to pierce our covering of
straw, and make us pay dearly for deviating from the straight road of
candour and prudence.
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