204 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



MANY people in the world are ever ready to set 

 up the pretensions of their acting with zeal, purely 

 to serve the public, and pretend that it is through 

 the warmth of their friendship that they do the 

 same to individuals; but the main spring of all 

 the actions of the agents of treachery, and of bad 

 men, is set a-going with the view only of serving 

 themselves. It is thus that the unprincipled and 

 mercenary thief-taker would like well to be ac- 

 counted a public spirited man ; and he cannot help 

 boasting of his services as such. The hangman's 

 pretensions are of the same kind : but however 

 useful and necessary some of such a description of 

 men may be, to keep down the wicked part of man- 

 kind, who are a nuisance to civilized society, yet 

 the instruments themselves are very like in charac- 

 ter to the Weasel in the Fable. The same may be 

 said of those factious writers, who pester the world 

 with their clamorous charges, under the mask of 

 patriotism, but whose real motive is either to gain 

 money by the sale of their highly seasoned scan- 

 dals, or to run down their corrupt opponents in 

 order to obtain their places. 



