An _Eagle_ and a _Leveret_.
An _Eagle_ that was Sharp set, and upon the Wing, looking about her
for her Prey, spy’d out a _Leveret_, made a Stoop like Light’ning, and
Truss’d it; and as she had it in the Foot, the Miserable Wretch Enter’d
into an Idle Expostulation upon the Conscience, and Justice of the
Proceeding: With what Honesty, says the _Hare_, Can you Invade the Right
of another Body? _Why_, says the _Eagle_, _to whom do you belong then_? I
belong to him, (says the Other) whom Heaven has made Master of all Living
Creatures under the Sun, and from whom That Propriety cannot be taken
without manifest Wrong and Usurpation. _Man_ is _My Master_, and I know
no other. _Well_, says the _Eagle_ again in Wrath, _And what’s the Title
now, that he pretends to this Propriety?_ Why ’tis the Excellency of his
_Reason_, says the _Hare_, that Entitles him to this Sovereignty; which
is a Claim that from the Creation of the World to this Day, was never
Subjected to the Question. _In Truth_, says the _Eagle, You have advanc’d
a very Pretty Invention here, in setting up_ Reason _against_ Force,
_where the Cause is not to be Decided by_ Argument, _but by_ Power: _And
to Convince ye now how much I am in the Right, You shall find, in despite
of all other Pretensions, since I have ye under my Government and Law,
that you were not Born for_ Him, _but for_ Me.
The MORAL.
_Laws with Penalties are made for the Government of the Simple, and the
Weak, like Cobwebs to Catch Flies; but Power is the Law of Laws, and
there’s no Disputing with it, but upon the Swords Point._