This Fable shews us the Danger and the Nature of Flattery. It calls
Good Things by Ill Names, and Ill by Good; but it will never be out of
Credit, so long as there are Knaves to Give it, and Fools to Take it. It
is never more Pernicious then in the Courts of Great Princes, because
a good deal of it looks like Duty; as in private Cases, it carries a
face of Friendship. The way to Rise is to Please, and whatever is gotten
by’t, comes by Treachery. ’Tis a Design that endangers both Body, Soul,
and Estate; and not One man of a Million that’s Proof against it. But
Great and Good Men will rather look for their Character in the Writings
and Precepts of the Philosophers, then in the _Hyperboles_ of their
Flatteries. For they know very well that _Wise Books_ are the Only _True
Friends_.
There’s a Fawning, Crafty Knave, and a Vain Easie Fool, well met, in
this Fable of the _Fox_ and the _Raven_; which is no more at last,
then One sort of Rascal _Cajoling_ Another; And then to shew us, both
that Impudence will stick at nothing, and that a Self-Conceited Fop
will swallow Any thing, the _Raven’s_ Beauty forsooth, and his Voice
are the _Topiques_, that _Reynard_ has made choice of to Dilate upon.
The two main Ends of Flattery, are Profit, or Safety, though there are
many others too that are less Principal; but in some respect or other,
Reducible to these Heads. The One is too Mercenary, and the other too
Servile, for a man of Worth. There are also several sorts and degrees of
it under this Division; and divers ways of Address and Application. But
_Flattery_ is _Flattery_ still, and the Moral extends to All.
’Tis in it self an Unmanly, Slavish Vice; but it is much Worse yet for
the Alliance it has to _Hypocrisie_: for while we make other people think
Better of themselves then they Deserve, we make them think Better of Us
too then We Deserve: For Self-love and Vanity on the One hand, Assists
the Falseness and Confidence on the Other, while it serves to confirm
weak Minds in the Opinion they had of Themselves before; and makes them
Parties, effectually, in a Conspiracy, to their Own Ruin. The Measures,
and the Artifices of it are Many, and in divers Cases so like Sincerity,
that what betwixt Custom, and the Nature of the Thing, it looks, in
truth, like a Virtue, and a Duty; that is to say, where it is so manag’d,
as to be rather Instructive then puffing up. As for Example, for a body
to say, [_This or That was Wisely foreseen_,] Or [_You intend, I presume,
to go This or That Way to Work_:] and the like. Such an Insinuation as
this is, carries the Force in it of a Tacite, and a prudent Advice; for
it both serves to point out the Reason of the thing, and it preserves
the Decency of that Respect which ought to go along with it. ’Tis a
good Hint, the very suggesting of such or such a Precaution, though the
consideration perhaps never came near the t’others Thoughts. But there is
a certain Habitual Meanness of Soul, which has so far prevail’d in the
World, that Common Civility is no less tainted by Course and Custom, then
Friendship and Conversation is by Corruption.
It is the Parasites Art to cast himself into all Shapes that may sort
with the Figure of his Patron, in what Post, Function, or Administration
soever; and to frame the Air and Countenance of his Words, Looks, and
Actions accordingly, with a respect to his Power, Wisdom, Conduct,
Bravery, Generosity, Justice, or what other Subject he thinks fit to
treat upon. So that let him be never so Perfidious, Shallow, Rash,
Timorous, Envious, Malicious, Proud, Covetous, _&c._ a Little _Court
Holy Water_ Washes off all Stains. And what is this upon the Main now,
but an Exchange of Air for Substance, and parting with All that either
is, or ought to be Dear to us, for a Song? The Flatterer, first Counsels
his Patron to his Loss; and then betrays him into the making himself
Ridiculous; as what can be more so, then for a _Raven_ to Value Himself
upon his _Croaking_, or an _Asse_ upon his _Braying_? The only Benefit,
or Good of Flattery is this; that by Hearing what we are _Not_, we may be
Instructed what we _Ought_ to be.