Every thing is Best, and Every Man Happiest, in the State and Condition
wherein Nature has Plac’d them; But if _Daws_ will be setting up for
_Peacocks_, or _Asses_ for _Lions_, they must Expect, and Content
themselves to be Laugh’d at for their Pains. The Allusion of the _Daw_
here, and his _Borrow’d Feathers_, Extends to All sorts of Impostors,
Vain Pretenders, and Romancers, in Feats of Arms, State, Love, or the
Like. It Points also at the Empty Affectation of Wit and Understanding;
in which case, it fares as it does with men that set up for Quality,
Birth, and Bravery, upon the Credit of a Gay Out-side; for Authors may
be Cozen’d upon the Tick, as well as Taylors: Nay we have seen some,
even of our _First-Rate-Writers_, that have been Better at Disguising
other Peoples Works, then Furnishing any thing of their Own; That is to
say; upon the taking of them to pieces, the Stuff and Trimming is found
to be Wholly Stol’n, and new-Fourbish’d; and nothing, in short that
they can Assume to Themselves but the Needle and Thred that Tackt the
Composition together. Now when these _Plagiaries_ come to be Stript of
their Borrow’d, or Pilfer’d Ornaments, there’s the _Daw_ in the Fable
truly Moraliz’d.