Wolves hearing an Ass was sick came to the stable and asked about her health. The young Ass told them her mother was better than they hoped for.
Don’t believe all rumors.
Samuel Croxall
AN Ass being sick, the report of it was spread abroad in the country, and some did not stick to say, that she would die before another night went ever her head. Upon this, several Wolves came to the stable where she lay, under pretence of making her a visit; but rapping at the door, and asking how she did, the young Ass came out, and told them that his mother was much better than they desired.
THE APPLICATION
The charitable visits which are made to many sick people proceed from much the same motive with that which prevailed upon the Wolves to pay their duty to the sick Ass, namely, that they may come in for some share of their remains, and feast themselves upon the reversion of their goods and chattels. We cannot, therefore, without pleasure, see their selfish visitants discovered through their mask of charity, and treated with such a reserve, as neighbours of their sort justly challenge.
As a behaviour thus grossly impertinent and officious must needs be offensive to a discerning man, and more especially at such a time, when he labours under any indisposition or pain of body, so it is very frequently injurious to the interest of him who makes use of it, and proves to be the means of his missing such an inheritance or legacy, as a more distant and modest deportment might have secured it to him.
Thomas Bewick
An Ass being sick, the report was spread abroad in the country, and some did not scruple to say, that she would die before another night went over her head. Upon this, several Wolves went to the stable where she lay, under pretence of making her a visit; but rapping at the door, and asking how she did, the young Ass came out, and told them that his mother was much better than they desired.
APPLICATION.
If the kind enquiries after the sick were all to be interpreted with as much frankness as those in the Fable, the porters of the great might commonly answer with the strictest propriety, that their masters were much better than was wished or desired. The charitable visits which are made to many sick people, proceed from much the same motive with that which induced the hungry Wolves to make their enquiries after the sick Ass, namely, that they may come in for some share of their remains, and feast themselves upon the reversion of their goods and chattels. The sick man’s heir longs for his estate; one friend waits in anxious expectation of a legacy, and another wants his place; it, however, does not unfrequently happen, that the mask of these selfish visitants, and their counterfeit sorrow, are seen through, and their impertinent officiousness treated with the contempt it so justly deserves.
JBR Collection
An Ass being sick, the report of it was spread abroad in the country, and some did not hesitate to say that she would die before the night was over. Upon this, several Wolves came to the stable where she lay, and rapping at the door, inquired how she did. The young Ass came out, and told them that her mother was much better than they desired.