304 FABLES. , 



how useful a drudge you were; now I have found 

 what you are good for, you may be assured I will 

 keep you to it. 



APPLICATION. 



VICTORIES may be purchased at too dear a rate, 

 if we solicit the assistance of allies capable of 

 becoming our most formidable enemies, and it 

 will be vain to flatter ourselves, that the yoke of 

 slavery, if we once willingly suffer it to be laid 

 upon our shoulders, can be easily shaken off, when 

 the ends for which we bore it are accomplished. 

 The Fable is intended to caution us against con- 

 senting to any thing that might prejudice public 

 liberty, as well as to keep us upon our guard 

 in the preservation of that which is of a private 

 nature. This is the use and interpretation given 

 of it by Horace, one of the best and most polite 

 philosophers that ever wrote. After reciting the 

 Fable, he applies it thus : This, says he, is the case 

 of him, who, dreading poverty, parts with that 

 invaluable jewel, liberty; like a wretch as he is, he 

 will always be subject to a tyrant of some sort or 

 another, and be a slave for ever, because his avari- 

 cious spirit knew not how to be contented with 

 that moderate competency, which he might have 

 possessed independent of all the world. 



