APPLICATION.
Our productions, of whatsoever kind, are not to be esteemed so much by their quantity as by their quality. It is not being employed much, but well, and to the purpose, which will make us useful to the age we live in, and celebrated by those which are to come. As the multiplication of foxes and other vermin is a misfortune to the countries which are infested with them, so one cannot help throwing out a melancholy reflection, when one sees some particular classes of the human kind increase so fast as they do. But the most obvious meaning of this Fable is the hint it gives us in relation to authors. These gentlemen should never attempt to raise themselves a reputation by trumping up a long catalogue of their various productions, since there is more glory in having written one tolerable piece than a thousand indifferent ones; and whoever has had the good fortune to please in one literary performance, should be very cautious how he stakes his reputation in a second attempt.
