300 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



ONE would imagine that the natural principle of 

 self-preservation implanted in us, would make it 

 unnecessary to caution any one not to furnish an 

 enemy with arms against himself. Yet daily expe- 

 rience shews us that such instances of imprudence 

 are not uncommon. In this life we are liable to 

 be surrounded with calamities and distresses: we 

 should therefore be careful not to add to our mis- 

 fortunes, by our own want of caution, nor to put 

 power into the hands of those enemies, which our 

 merit or our affluence may tempt to rise up against 

 us. Any person in a community, by w r hat name 

 or title soever distinguished, who affects a power 

 which may possibly hurt a people, is their enemy, 

 and therefore they ought not to trust him ; for 

 though he w r ere ever so fully determined not to 

 abuse such a power, yet he is so far a bad man, as 

 he disturbs a nation's quiet, and makes them 

 jealous and uneasy, by desiring to have it, or even 

 retaining it, when it may prove mischievous. If 

 we consult history, we shall find that the thing 

 called prerogative, has been claimed and contended 

 for chiefly by those who never intended to make a 

 good use of it; and as readily resigned by wise 

 and just princes, who had the true interest of their 

 people at heart. How like senseless stocks do 

 they act, who, by complimenting some capricious 

 mortal, from time to time, with scraps of preroga- 

 tive, at last put it out of their power to maintain 

 their just and natural liberty! 



