nobody could deny his great
superiority as to wisdom.' Being separately asked, they most of them
declared, that they knew no one reason, either from his words or
actions, to pronounce him a wise bird; though it was true, that by an
affected solemnity in his looks, and by frequent declarations of his
own, that he was very wife, he had made some very silly birds give
him that character; but, since they were called upon to declare their
opinions, they must say, that he was ever the object of contempt to all
those birds who had any title to common understanding. The eagle then
said, 'He could by no means admit a plea, which as plainly appeared
to be counterfeit, as were the jay's borrowed feathers.' The owl, thus
disappointed, flew away, and has ever since shunned the light of the
sun, and has never appeared in the daytime, but to be scorned and
wondered at.


It would be endless to repeat all the several pleas brought by the
birds, each desiring to prove, that happiness ought to be his own
peculiar lot. But the eagle observing that the arguments made use of to
prove their point were chiefly drawn from the disadvantages of others,
rather than from any advantage of their own, told them, 'There was too
much envy and malice amongst them, for him to pronounce any of them
deserving or capable of being happy; but I wonder,' says he, 'why the
dove alone is absent from this meeting?' 'I know of one in her nest hard
by,' answered the redbreast, 'shall I go and call her?' 'No,' says the
eagle, 'since she did not obey our general summons, 'tis plain she had
no ambition for a public preference; but I will take two or three chosen
friends, and we will go softly to her nest, and see in what manner she
is employing herself; for from our own observations upon the actions
of any one, we are more likely to form a judgment of them, than by any
boasts they can make.'

The eagle was obeyed, and, accompanied only by the linnet, the lark, the
lapwing, and the redbreast for his guide, he stole gently to the place
where the dove was found hovering over her nest, waiting the return of
her absent mate; and, thinking herself quite unobserved,


     [*] While o'er her callow brood she hung,
     She fondly thus address'd her young:
         'Ye tender objects of my care,
     Peace!