<< Home Page | Abstemius (L'Estrange) Index

Abstemius's Fables (Sir Roger L'Estrange)

334. (Abstemius 82) A Pike sets up for Sovereignty.

There was a Master-Pike, that for his Bulk, Beauty and Strength, was look'd upon to be the Prince of the River; but the Sovereignty of the Fresh Water would not content him, it seems unless he might engross to himself the Empire of the Sea too. Upon this Ambitious Design, he launch'd out into the Ocean, and put up his Claim to't. But a prodigious Dolphin took this Encroachment upon his Right in such dudgeon, that he set upon the Pike, gave him Chace, and pursu'd him to the very Borders of his own Stream; insomuch, that the Pike had enough to do to save himself: And from that time forward he had the Wit to keep within the Compas of his Own Dominions.
Ambition has no other Bounds than what Providence has prescrib'd to it, for the Good of Mankind. Here shall thy proud Ways stay. And there must be no passing those Limits.

 


Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists: Abstemius's Fables by Sir Roger L'Estrange. Available online at Google Books.