APPLICATION.
Phædrus tells us upon his word, that this is a true story, and that he wrote it for the sake of a set of industrious idle gentlemen at Rome, who were harassed and fatigued with a daily succession of care and trouble, because they had nothing to do. Always in a hurry, but without business; busy, but to no purpose; labouring under a voluntary necessity, and taking abundance of pains to shew they were good for nothing. But what great town or city is so entirely free of this sect, as to render the moral of this Fable useless any where? For it points at all those officious good-natured people, who are eternally running up and down to serve their friends, without doing them any good; who, by a complaisance wrong judged or ill applied, displease whilst they endeavour to oblige, and are never doing less to the purpose than when they are most employed. In a word, this Fable is designed for the reformation of all those who endeavour to gain for themselves benefits and applause, from a misapplied industry. It is not our being busy and officious that will procure us the esteem of men of sense; but the application of our actions to some noble useful purpose, and for the general good of mankind.
