Æsop in select fables ... with A dialogue between Bow-steeple dragon and the Exchange grashoper.

FAB. VII. The Frogs Concern.

TWO fierce young Bulls within th•• Marshes strove, For the Reward of Empire and of Love; Which should the fairest Heifer gain, And wich should govern all the Plain. This, when a Frog hard by perceiv'd, He sigh'd, and sob'd, and sorely griev'd. He hung his Head, and made great moan, As though he had lost his Wife or Son. At which a neighbour Frog admir'd, And kindly of the Cause enquir'd; Which when he knew, he said in haste, And Gossip, is this all at last? If this and that great Loggerheaded Bull Will try the Thickness of each others Scull. E'en let them do, as fit they see: But what is that to You and Me? If that, replied the other, were all indeed, We should about this Matter be agreed, I should not care a single Groat, To see them tare each others Throat; But, Friend, the Creatures of such Might, Can nevet meet in Field to Fight,

But in the Fury of their full Carreer, Both you and I endanger'd are; And all our kindred Tribes below, In hazard of their Lives must go. When Bulls rush on, or when retreat for Breath, They'll tread a hundred of us little Folks to death. If Kings would fight themselves alone, Their People still secure, No mortal Man would part 'em sure, But let them e'en fight on. But when the Suhjects Blood is spilt, And their Estates are drain'd, To justifie a Princes Guilt, Or have his Vanity maintan'd; When they must pay for all at last, That Lust, Ambition, or Revenge lay waste; The poorest Man alive may fear, And pray against the Miseries of War.