Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists… (1692)
“ THERE is Nothing either so Great, or so Little, as not to be Lyable to the Vicissitudes of Fortune, whether for Good or for Evil, A Miserable Fly is sufficient we see, to take down the Stomach of a Lyon: And then to Correct the Insulting Vanity of That Fly, it falls the next Moment into the Toyl of a Spider. 'Tis Highly Improvident not to Obviate small Things; and as Ridiculous to be Baffled by them; and it is not the Force neither, but the Importumty that is so Vexatious and Troublesom to us. The very Teizing of the Lyon Gall'd him more then an Arrow at his Heart would have done. ”
