1 86 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



IT is generally the design of hypocritical persons 

 to delude and impose upon others, with an eye to 

 derive some benefit to themselves, when they pre- 

 tend to feel a flattering anxiety for their welfare; 

 or sometimes they may perhaps, with impertinent 

 folly, mean no more than merely to mock and be- 

 fool men who are weak enough to become their 

 dupes. In both cases they are enemies to truth 

 and sincerity, which adorn and tend so greatly to 

 promote the happiness of society, and they ought 

 to be exposed as such. For although men of pene- 

 tration see through the pretence, and escape its 

 dangers, yet the weak, the vain, and the unsus- 

 picious are put off their guard, and have not dis- 

 cernment enough to shun the trap so pleasingly 

 baited. The Fable also furnishes a hint against 

 hypocritical legacy hunters, whose regard is gener- 

 ally of the same nature as that of the Fox for the 

 Hen. 



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