THE HEN AND THE SWALLOW.
A Hen, having found a nest of Serpent’s eggs in a dung-hill, immediately, with a fostering care, sat upon them, with a design to hatch them. A Swallow observing this, flew towards her, and with great earnestness forewarned her of her danger. What! said she, are you mad, to bring forth a brood of such pernicious creatures? Be assured, the instant they are warmed into life, you are the first they will attack and wreak their venomous spite upon: but the Hen persisted in her folly, and the end verified the Swallow’s prediction.
APPLICATION.
It is too often the hard fortune of many a kind good-natured man in the world to breed up a bird to pick out his own eyes, in despite of all cautions to the contrary; but they who want foresight should hearken to the council of the wise, as this might have the effect of preventing their spending much time and good offices on the undeserving, perhaps to the utter ruin of themselves. It is the duty of all men to act fairly, openly, and honestly, in all their transactions in life; to do justice to all; but to consider well the character of those on whom they would confer favours: for gratitude is one of the rarest as well as the greatest of virtues. The Fable is intended to shew that we should never have any dealings with bad men, even to do them kindnesses. Men of evil principles are a generation of vipers, that ought to be crushed; and every rogue should be looked upon by honest men as a venomous serpent. The man who is occasionally, or by accident, one’s enemy, may be mollified by kindness, and reclaimed by good usage: such a behaviour both reason and morality expect from us: but we should ever resolve, if not to suppress, at least to have no connexion with those whose blood is tinctured with hereditary, habitual villainy, and their nature leavened with evil, to such a degree as to be incapable of a reformation.