Aesop's Fables: Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)
162. A NIGHTINGALE AND A BAT (Perry
48)
As a Nightingale was Singing in a Cage at a Window, up comes a Bat to
her, and Asks her why she did not Sing in the Day, as well as in the Night.
Why (says the Nightingale) I was catch'd Singing in the Day, and so I
took it for a Warning: You should have thought of this then, says T'other,
before you was Taken; for as the Case stands now, Y'are in no Danger to
be Snapt Singing again.
THE MORAL. A Wrong Reason for the Doing of a Thing, is worse than no
Reason at all.
 L'Estrange originally published his version of the fables in 1692. There is a
very nice illustrated edition in the Children's Classics series by Knopf: Sir
Roger L'Estrange. Aesop
- Fables which is available at amazon.com.
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