A _Stag_ Drinking.
As a _Stag_ was Drinking upon the Bank of a Clear Stream, he saw his
Image in the Water, and Enter’d upon This Contemplation upon’t. Well!
says he, if These Pityful Shanks of mine were but Answerable to this
Branching Head, I can but think how I should Defy all my Enemies. The
Words were hardly out of his Mouth, but he Discover’d a Pack of Dogs
coming full Cry towards him. Away he Scours cross the Fields, Casts off
the Dogs, and Gains a Wood; but Pressing through a Thicket, the Bushes
held him by the Horns, till the Hounds came in, and Pluck’d him Down.
The Last Thing he said was This. What an Unhappy Fool was I, to Take my
Friends for my Enemies, and my Enemies for my Friends! I Trusted to my
_Head_, that has Betray’d me, and I found fault with my Legs, that would
otherwise have brought me off.
The MORAL.
_He that does not throughly know himself, may be well allowed to make a
False Judgment upon other Matters that most Nearly concern him._