A _Fox_ and a _Raven_.
A Certain _Fox_ spy’d out a _Raven_ upon a Tree with a Morsel in his
mouth, that set his Chops a watering; but how to come at it was the
Question. O thou Blessed Bird! (says he) the Delight of Gods, and of
Men! and so he lays himself forth upon the Gracefulness of the _Ravens_
Person, and the Beauty of his Plumes; His Admiral Gift of _Augury_, &c.
And now, says the _Fox_, If thou hadst but a Voice answerable to the
rest of thy Excellent Qualities, the Sun in the Firmament could not shew
the World such Another Creature. This Nauseous Flattery sets the _Raven_
immediately a Gaping as Wide as ever he could stretch, to give the _Fox_
a taste of his Pipe; but upon the Opening of his Mouth he drops his
Breakfast, which the _Fox_ presently Chopt up, and then bad him remember,
that whatever he had said of his _Beauty_, he had spoken nothing yet of
his _Brains_.
The MORAL.
_There’s hardly any Man living that may not be wrought upon more or less
by Flattery: For we do all of us Naturally Overween in our Own Favour:
But when it comes to be Apply’d once to a Vain Fool, it makes him forty
times an Arranter Sot than he was before._