When Ill Men take up a Fit of Kindness all on a sudden, and appear to be
Better Natur’d then Usual, ’tis Good Discretion to suspect Fraud, and to
lay their Words, and their Practices together: The Greater the Trust, the
Greater is the Treachery, and the Baser is the Villany too. This Moral
reaches to All sorts of Trustees whatsoever.
It were well if All _Two-Footed Servants_ were but as Faithful to their
Masters as This _Four-Legg’d Animal_. A Loaf of Bread was as much to Him
as a Bag of _Guineas_ to a Great-Officer; And why should not the One make
as much Conscience of Betraying his Patron for Gold, as the Other of
doing it for a Crust? Beside the Right Reasoning of the _Dog_ upon the
Consequence of Things. _If I take Your Bread_, (says he) _You’ll Rob my
Master_. But in the Other case it is not so much a Deliberation of what
will follow upon’t, as a kind of Tacit Composition, that does as good as
say [_For so much Mony I’ll shut my Eyes, and let You Rob my Master._]
Here’s an _Emblem_ now, of the Foresight, Fidelity, and Duty of a Trusty
Servant, on the One hand, and of the Flattery, Arts and Practices that
are Employ’d by Evil Men to Corrupt him, on the Other.
Under the figure of This Faithful Trusty Servant, is Couch’d a Lecture
to All men of Business; let them be Councellors, Confidents, Favourites,
Officers, Soldiers, Traders, or what you will. For there are Good and
Bad of All Kinds and Professions. So that _Æsop’s Dog_ is a Reproche to
_False Men_. Publick Persons have their ways of Temptation, and Address,
as well as Private; And He that Suffers a Government to be Abus’d by
Carlesness, or Neglect, does the Same thing, with Him that Maliciously
and Corruptly sets himself to Couzen it. This holds as well too in the
Private Case, of being either Principal or Accessary to the Robbing of
a House; Only the Former, is a Treachery of a Deeper Dye. There are
Loaves at the Gates of Courts and Palaces, as well as at the Door of
a Cottage; and to Encourage the Abuse, there are a Thousand Quirks to
avoid the Stroke of the Law, though None to Avoid the Guilt of the
Sin. There needs no Contract Express; No Explicit Confederacy; for the
Consent, and the Assistance is Imply’d in receiving the Present; Or
according to the Word in Fashion, the [_Acknowledgment_:] which is only
a softer Name for a _Bribe_. Now this _Acknowledgment_ is of the Nature
of a Direct Bargain, where the Sum, or the Reward is agreed upon before
the Thing be done; though there’s room yet for a Distinction, even in
These Cases, betwixt what’s done Openly and Barefac’d, and a Thing that’s
done in _Hugger mugger_, under a Seal of Secrecy and Concealment. But
the Conscience at last is the Best Judg of the Fraud. And without any
more Words, the _Dog_ in the Fable perform’d All the Parts of a _Trusty
Servant_.