A _Lamb_, a _Wolf_ and a _Goat_.
A _Wolf_ overheard a _Lamb_ Bleating among the _Goats_. D’ye hear Little
One, (says the _Wolf_,) if it be your Dam you want, she’s yonder in the
Field. Ay (says the _Lamb_,) but I am not looking for her that was my
Mother for her _Own_ sake, but for her that Nurses me up, and Suckles
me out of _Pure Charity_, and _Good Nature_. Can any thing be Dearer to
you, says the _Wolf_, then she that brought you forth? Very Right, says
the _Lamb_; and without knowing or caring what she did: And pray what
did she bring me forth _for_ too, but to Ease her self of a _Burden_,
and to deliver me out of her own Belly, into the Hands of the _Butcher_?
I am more Beholden to her that took Pity of me when I was in the World
already, then to her that brought me into’t, I know not how. ’Tis
_Charity_, not _Nature_, or _Necessity_ that does the Office of a _Tender
Mother_.
The MORAL.
_There’s a difference betwixt Reverence and Affection; the one goes to
the Character, and the other to the Person, and so distinguishes Duty
from Inclination. Our Mothers brought us into the World; a Stranger takes
us up, and Preserves us in’t. So that here’s both a Friend and a Parent
in the case, and the Obligation of the one, must not destroy the Respect
I owe to the other; nor the Respect the Obligation: And none but an Enemy
will advise us to quit either._