256 FABLES. 



pot disdained the rank in which nature had placed 

 you, you had not been used so scurvily by those 

 upon whom you intruded yourself, nor suffered the 

 notorious slight which now we think ourselves 

 obliged to put upon you. 



APPLICATION. 



To aim at making a figure by the means of either 

 borrowed wit, or borrowed money, generally sub- 

 jects us at last to a ten-fold ridicule. A wise man, 

 therefore, will take his post quietly, in his own 

 station, without pretending to fill that of another, 

 and never affect to look bigger than he really is, 

 by means of a false or borrowed light. It shews 

 great weakness and vanity in any man to be 

 pleased at making an appearance above what he 

 really is; but if to enable him to do so with some- 

 thing of a better grace, he has clandestinely 

 feathered his nest out of his neighbour's goods, it 

 is a pity if he should not be found out, stripped of 

 his plunder, and treated like a felonious rogue into 

 the bargain. 



