The _Belly_ and _Members_.
The _Commoners of Rome_ were gone off once into a Direct Faction against
the _Senate_. They’d pay no _Taxes_, nor be forc’d to bear _Arms_, they
said, and ’twas against the _Liberty of the Subject_ to pretend to Compel
them to’t. The Sedition, in short, ran so High, that there was no Hope of
Reclaiming them, till _Menenius Agrippa_ brought them to their Wits again
by This _Apologue_:
The _Hands_ and the _Feet_ were in a Desperate Mutiny once against the
_Belly_. They knew No Reason, they said, why the One should be Lazing,
and Pampering it self with the Fruit of the Others Labour; and if the
_Body_ would not Work for Company, they’d be no longer at the Charge of
Maintaining it. Upon This Mutiny, they kept the _Body_ so long without
Nourishment, that All the Parts Suffer’d for’t: Insomuch that the _Hands_
and _Feet_ came in the Conclusion to find their Mistake, and would have
been willing Then to have Done their Office; but it was now too Late,
for the _Body_ was so Pin’d with Over-Fasting, that it was wholly out
of Condition to receive the Benefit of a Relief: which gave them to
understand, that _Body and Members are to Live and Die together_.
The MORAL.
_The Publick is but One Body, and the Prince the Head on’t; so that what
Member soever withdraws his Service from the Head, is no Better then a
Negative Traitor to his Country._