Æsop_’s Answer to a Magistrate_.
It happened some few days after the Last Passage above, that _Xanthus_,
having some Business at the Publick Hall, sent Æsop to see if there were
any Great Throng of Men there; a Magistrate meets him Upon the _Way_,
and Asks him whither he was going? Why truly, says Æsop, I am going I
know not whither. The Magistrate took it that he Banter’d him, and bad
an Officer take him into Custody and Carry him to Prison. Well, says
Æsop, to the Magistrate; Is it not true Now, that I did not know Whither
I was going? Can you Imagine, that when I came out of the house this
Morning, I had any thoughts of going to _Prison_? The Magistrate was
well enough pleased at the fancy, and Discharg’d him Upon it, and so he
went forward to the Hall; Where among a world of People, he saw one Man
arrest another upon an Action of Debt. The Debtor Pleaded Poverty; but if
he would Compound for half, it should go hard but he’d make a Shift to
Pick it up, he said. Well with all my Heart, says the Creditor, Lay down
the Mony upon the Nail, and the Business is done: for a man had better
Content himself with Half, then Lose All, And I reckon that Mony as good
as lost, that a Man must go to Law for; Æsop upon this, went back and
told his Master, that he had been at the Hall, and saw but one Man there;
This was a Riddle to _Xanthus_; Insomuch that he went himself to Learn
the Truth of the Matter. When he came to the Place, he found the Court
extremely Thronged, and turning short upon Æsop, in great Indignation,
Sirrah, says he, are all these People come since you told me there was
but one Man here? ’Tis very true, says Æsop, There was a Huge Crowd, and
yet but _one Man_ that I could see in That vast _Multitude_. This seems
to be taken out of the Life of _Diogenes_.