1 88 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



As all affectation is wrong", and tends to expose 

 and make a man ridiculous, so the more distant he 

 is from the thing which he affects to appear, the 

 stronger will be the ridicule which he excites, and 

 the greater the inconvenience into which he there- 

 by runs himself. How strangely absurd it is for a 

 timorous person to procure a military post, in order 

 to keep himself out of danger ! and to fancy a red 

 coat the surest protection for cowardice ! Yet there 

 have been those who have purchased a commission 

 to avoid being insulted ; and have been so silly as 

 to think courage was interwoven with a sash, or 

 tied up in a cockade. But it would not be amiss 

 for such gentlemen to consider that it is not in the 

 power of scarlet cloth to alter nature, and that as it 

 is expected a soldier should shew himself a man of 

 courage and intrepidity upon all proper occasions, 

 they may by this means meet the disgrace they in- 

 tended to avoid, and appear greater Asses than 

 they needed to have done. However, it is not in 

 point of fortitude only that people are liable to ex- 

 pose themselves, by assuming a character to which 

 they are not equal; but he who puts on a shew of 

 learning, of religion, of a superior capacity in any 

 respect, or in short, of any virtue or knowledge, to 

 which he has no proper claim, is, and will always 

 be found to be, an Ass in a Lion's skin. 



