Æsop’s _Answer to a Gard’ner_.
Some Two or Three Days after the Encounter above mentioned, _Xanthus_
took Æsop along with him to a Garden to buy some Herbs, and the
_Gard’ner_ seeing him in a Habit of a Philosopher, told him the
Admiration he was in, to find how much faster Those Plants shot up that
Grow of their own accord, than Those that he set Himself, though he took
never so much Care about them. Now you that are a Philosopher, Pray will
you tell me the meaning of This? _Xanthus_ had no better answer at hand,
then to tell him, That Providence would have it so: Whereupon Æsop brake
out into a Loud Laughter. Why how now Ye slave You, says _Xanthus_, what
do you Laugh at? Æsop took him aside and told him, Sir, I Laugh at your
Master, that Taught You no better: for what signifies a Gen’ral Answer to
a Particular Question? And ’tis no News Neither that Providence orders
All Things: But if you’ll turn him over to me, You shall see I’ll give
him another sort of Resolve. _Xanthus_ told the _Gard’ner_, that it was
below a Philosopher to busy his head about such Trifles; but says he,
If you have a Curiosity to be better Inform’d, you shall do well to ask
my Slave here, and see what he’ll say to you. Upon this, the _Gard’ner_
put the Question to Æsop, Who gave him this Answer. The Earth is in the
Nature of a _Mother_ to what She brings forth of her Self, out of her own
Bowels; Whereas She is only a kind of a _Step-Dame_, in The Production
of Plants that are Cultivated and Assisted by The Help and Industry of
Another: so that it’s Natural for her to Withdraw her Nourishment from
the One, towards The Relief of the Other. The _Gard’ner_, upon this, was
so well satisfied, That he would take no Mony for his Herbs, and Desired
Æsop to make Use of his Garden for the future, as if it were his own.
There are several Stories in _Planudes_, that I shall pass over in this
Place (says _Camerarius_) as not worth the while: Particularly The Fables
of the _Lentills_, the _Bath_, the _Sow’s Feet_, and several Little Tales
and Jests that I take to be neither well Laid, nor well put together;
Neither is it any matter, in Relations of this Nature, Whether they be
True or False, but if they be Proper and Ingenious; and so contriv’d,
that the Reader or the Hearer may be the better for them, That’s as much
as is required: Wherefore I shall now Commit to Writing Two Fables or
Stories, One about the bringing his Mistress home again, when she had
left her Husband; Which is drawn from the Model of a Greek History set
out by _Pausanias_ in his Description of _Bœtia_; The Other, upon the
Subject of a Treat of _Neats Tongues_, which was taken from _Bias_, as we
have it from _Plutarch_ in his _Convivium Septem Sapientum_.