266 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



MANY of the old moralists have interpreted this 

 Fable as a caution never to trust a woman: a bar- 

 barous inference, which neither the obvious sense 

 of the apologue, nor the disposition of the softer 

 sex will warrant. For though some women may 

 be fickle and unstable, yet the generality exceed 

 their calumniators in truth and constancy, and 

 have more frequently to complain of being the 

 victims, than to be arraigned as the authors of 

 broken vows. To us this Fable appears to mean 

 little more than merely to shew how easily inclined 

 we are, in all our various expectations through life, 

 to delude ourselves into a belief of any thing which 

 we desire to be true. The lover interprets every 

 smile of his mistress in his own favour, and is then 

 perhaps neglected. The beauty believes all man- 

 kind are dying for her, and is then deserted by her 

 train of admirers. The followers of the great 

 reckon a smile or a nod very auspicious omens, 

 and deceive themselves with groundless hopes of 

 employment or promotion, in expectation of which, 

 they, like the Wolf at the Nurse's door, dangle 

 away the time that might be usefully employed 

 elsewhere, and at last are obliged to retire dis- 

 appointed and hungry, crying out perhaps against 

 the perfidy of those in power, instead of blaming 

 their own sanguine credulity. 



