206 



FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



IT is no uncommon thing to meet with impudent 

 fools, so very eager of being thought wits, that they 

 will run great hazards in attempting to shew them- 

 selves such, and will often persist in their awkward 

 raillery to the last degree of offence. But these 

 kind of folks, instead of raising themselves into 

 esteem, are held in contempt by men of sense; and 

 though the generous and the brave may scorn to 

 suffer themselves to be ruffled by the insolent beha- 

 viour of every ass that offends them, yet such 

 sparks must not from thence conclude, that they 

 will not meet with retorts in kind from men far 

 superior to themselves in mental endowments; or 

 that their unseasoned wit will always escape a more 

 proper, but a different chastisement. 



