Here’s a Fiction of an _Alarum_, and we’ll suppose it to be a False
One too; for the Inventor has not Determin’d the Point. Now the Fancy
will have more Force and Quickness in’t that Way, then T’other; and
the _Asses_ Reasoning upon the Case, will hold good both Ways alike:
Only the _Asses_ in the _Moral_ are more Frightful then the _Asses_
in the _Fable_. _We shall be Taken else_, is the Song of All Popular
Male-Contents, when they design a Change of Government: And so they
Hurry the Mobile Head-long upon the very Dread of Imaginary Chains and
Shackles, into the Slavery they Fear’d: But _some Asses_ are Wiser then
_Others_: for the _Multitude_ would Answer their Masters else in the
_One Instance_, as the _Animal_ here in the Emblem Answer’d His, in the
_Other_: Here was no Scampering away at a Venture, without Fear, or
Wit; No Sollicitous Enquiry whether the News was True or No: But the
_Mythologist_ has prudently, and for our Instruction, Cast those Two
Circumstances out of the Question, and laid the Stress of it upon This
single Issue. As who would say; In all Governments there must be Burdens
to be Born, and People to Bear them: And who so proper to bear Those
Burdens, as Those that Providence and Policy have Appointed and Design’d
for that Office and Station? So that ’tis all one to the Common People
who’s Uppermost (That is to say, upon the Matter of Ease and Liberty) for
_Asses_ must be _Asses_ still, whoever _Rides_ them, and Providence will
keep the World in Order still, whoever Grumbles at it.