Fable XVIII. The Two Mice

AMoufe) weary of liviog in continual peril and alarm from barbarous cats and weasels, who made great havock of the moufique nation, called her gofEp, that lived in a neighbouring hole, a rare thought, said (he to her, has struck me in the head; I have read in certain books, wluch I have been gnawing some days pad, that there is a fine country, naaied the Indies, where our people are better used, and more in safety than here: in that country sages believe that the soul of a mouse may have been formerly the soul of a great captain, of a King, or, perhaps, of a wonderful Fakir; and that it may, after the death of the mouse, enter into the body of some fine lady, or great Pendiar; if I right remember, this is called the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; in this opinion, they treat all animals with a brotherly love: there are to be seen hospitals of mice, who are put out to board, and entertained like persons of consequence; along, fifler, let us make the bed of our way for fo fine a country, where the polity is lb excellent, and justice done to our merit, the goifip re-plied; but, fiAer, are there no cats that get into those hospitals? if there were, t)iey would fooa make abundance of transmigrations; one stroke of tooth or claw woHid make a King, or a Fakir; a wonder which we could very well dilpenfe with, don't fear that, said the former, the or4er is perfedt in that country; the cats haye their houses, as we have ours; and they have likewise their hospitals of invalids by themselves. after this converiation, our two mice set out together: they get on board of a ship, which was going a long voyage, by slipping a!dng the ropes the evening before the embarkation, away they fail, and are overjoyed to see themselves far from the cursed (hores, where the cats exercised their tyranny, the voyage was prosperous; they arrived at Surat, not to amass riches, like merchants, but in order to be made much €)£ by the Indians, scarce had they got into an habitation assigned to mice, when they challenged the first place there, the one pretended (he remembred to have been formerly a famous Bramin on the coaCl of Malabar; the other protested that (he had been a fine lady of the same country, mxh long ears, in short, they grew fo infblent, that the Indian mice could not bear them, and now, behold a civil war i they fell without mercy upon the two Franguis, who wanted to give law to the rest, instead of being eaten by cats, they were worried by their own lifters.

Let people go never fo far to avoid danger, if they are not modest and discreet, they do but seek their rain abroad, which it were as well to meet at homer

BEASTS

CHUSING A

KING.