A _Gourd_ and a _Pine_.
There was a _Gourd_ Planted close by a Large Well-spread _Pine_: The
Season was Kindly, and the _Gourd_ shot it self up in a short time,
climbing by the Boughs, and twining about ’em, till it topp’d and cover’d
the Tree it self. The Leaves were Large, and the Flowers and the Fruit
Fair; insomuch that the _Gourd_ had the confidence to value it self
above the _Pine_, upon the comparison. Why, says the _Gourd_, you have
been more Years a growing to this Statue, then I have been Days. Well,
says the _Pine_ again, but after so many Winters and Summers as I have
endured, after so many Blasting Colds, and Parching Heats, you see me the
very same thing still that I was so long ago. But when you come to the
Proof once, the First Blight or Frost shall most infallibly bring down
that Stomach of yours, and strip ye of all your Glory.
The MORAL.
_Nothing so Insolent and Intolerable as a Proud Upstart that’s rais’d
from a Dunghil; he forgets both his Master and his Maker._