A _Gnat_ Challenges a _Lyon_.
As a _Lyon_ was Blustering in the Forrest, up comes a _Gnat_ to his very
Beard, and Enters into an Expostulation with him upon the Points of
Honour and Courage. What do I Value your Teeth, or your Claws, says the
_Gnat_, that are but the Arms of Every Bedlam Slut? As to the Matter of
Resolution; I defy ye to put That Point Immediately to an Issue. So the
Trumpet Sounded, and the Combatants Enter’d the Lists. The _Gnat_ Charg’d
into the Nostrils of the _Lyon_, and there Twing’d him, till he made him
Tear himself with his Own Paws. And in the Conclusion he Master’d the
_Lyon_. Upon This, a Retreat was Sounded, and the _Gnat_ flew his way:
But by Ill-hap afterward, in his Flight, he Struck into a Cobweb, where
the _Victor_ fell a Prey to a _Spider_. This Disgrace went to the Heart
of him, after he had got the Better of a _Lyon_, to be Worsted by an
_Insect_.
The MORAL.
_’Tis in the Power of Fortune to Humble the Pride of the Mighty, even by
the most Despicable Means, and to make a_ Gnat _Triumph over a_ Lyon:
_Wherefore let no Creature, how Great or how Little soever, Presume on
the One side, or Despair on the Other_.