These Fables are a Reproof to the Ungrateful Cruelty of those, that
will neither forgive One Slip, nor Reward a Thousand Services, but
take more Notice of a Particular Unlucky Accident, then of a General
Laudable Practice. But One Stumble is enough to Deface the Character of
an Honourable Life. It is a Barbarous Inhumanity in Great Men to Old
Servants, to make the Failings of Age to be a Crime, without allowing the
Past Services of Their Strength and Youth, to have been a Virtue. And
this is found in Governments, as well as in Courts, and Private Families;
with Masters and Mistresses, as well as in States.
’Tis a miserable Thing, when Faithful Servants fall into the hands of
Insensible, and Unthankful Masters; Such as Value Services only by the
Profit they bring them, without any regard to the Zeal, Faith, and
Affections, of the Heart, and pay them with Blows, and Reproches in
their Age, for the Use, Strength and Industry of their Youth. Nay Humane
Frailty it self is Imputed to them for a Crime, and they are Treated
Worse then Beasts, for not being More then Men. Here’s an _Old Drudging
Curr_ turn’d off to Shift for Himself, for want of the very Teeth and
Heels that he had lost in his _Masters_ Service. Nay, if he can but
come off for Starving too, it passes for an Act of Mercy. Under These
Circumstances, the Bare Sense of a Calamity is call’d Grumbling, and if a
man does but make a Face upon the Boot, he’s presently a Male-Content. It
may be a Question now whether the Wickedness, or the Imprudence of this
Iniquity be the more Pernicious; for over and above the Inhumanity, ’tis
a Doctrine of Ill Consequence to the _Master_ Himself, to shew the World
how Impossible a Thing it is for a Servant to Oblige and Please him: Nay,
it is some sort of Temptation also to Impiety and Injustice, when Virtue
and Duty came to be made Dangerous.
And yet it is not One _Master_ perhaps of Twenty, all this while, that
either directs, or takes notice of These Indignities. It goes a Great
Way, ’tis true, Barely to Permit them. One while perchance the Master
is not Aware of what is done, and then in Other Cases, it may fall out
Effectually to be his Own Act, even against his Own Will: That is to say,
when the Passions of Imperious, and Ill-Natur’d Servants are Cover’d with
the Name and Authority of their Patrons, in the Abuse of a trust that was
Plac’d in ’em for Honester, and for Nobler Ends. It is Congruous enough
yet to Apply the Moral of This Fiction, rather to the Driver of the
_Asse_, and to the Huntsman that Manag’d the Chase, then to the _Master_
Himself: But the _Asse_ and the _Dog_ were beaten however, for being
_Old_, and spent in Despite of All the Bonds and Instincts of Honour,
Piety, and Good Nature.