Fable XXXV The Undutiful Young Lion
Among other good counsels that an old experienced Lion gave to his whelp, this was one, that he should never contend with a man: for, says he, if ever you do, you’ll be worsted. The little Lion gave his father the hearing, and kept the advice in his thought, but it never went near his heart. When he came to be grown up, afterwards, and in the flower of his strength and vigour, about he ranges to look for a man to grapple with. In his ramble he met with a yoke of oxen, and then with a horse, saddled and bridled, and severally asked them if they were men; but they saying they were not, he goes after this to one that was cleaving of blocks: D’ye hear? says the Lion, you seem to be a man: And a man I am, says the fellow. That’s well, quoth the Lion, and dare you fight with me? Yes, says the man, I dare: why, I can tear all these blocks to pieces, you see. Put your feet now into this gap, where you see an iron thing there, and try what you can do. The Lion presently put his paws into the gaping of the wood, and with one lusty pluck made it give way, and out drops the wedge; the wood immediately closing upon it, there was the Lion caught by the toes. The Wood-man presently upon this raises the country, and the Lion finding what a strait he was in, gave one hearty twitch and got his feet out of the trap, but left his claws behind him. So away he goes back to his father, all lame and bloody, with this confession in his mouth: Alas! my dear father, says he, this had never been, if I had followed your advice.
Morals
The vengeance of Heaven, sooner or later, treads upon the heels of wilful disobedience to parents.
When wayward children in the pride of youth,
Scorn wisdom’s precepts, and the curb of truth;
Laugh at experience, and her sagest rules,
And hold restraints the doting fits of fools;
They thoughtless rush, where folly leads the way,
Where evils throng, and vice holds lordly sway.
Yet hoary age by long experience knows,
Where vices flourish, and where evil grows;
With cautious fondness for the budding mind,
Warns from the path, where ill with ill’s combin’d;
Whilst heedless youth, in all the pomp of pride,
Spurn at his prudence, and his laws deride.
A few short years disperse the dazzling shade,
Which fame excited, and which transports made;
Wearied and pall’d with pleasure’s fleeting joys,
Which madness raves for, and which health destroys;
Too late they find, by sage experience taught,
The rules of age are with true wisdom fraught.
Reflection
Children are not to reason upon obedience to parents, provided there be nothing in the command, or in the imposition, that is simply evil; for headstrong and undutiful children seldom escape a remarkable punishment, which gives them reason to say to their parents, this had never been, if I had followed your advice.