Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists… (1692)
“ Hopes and Disappointments are the Entertainment of Humane Life: The One serves to keep us from Presumption, the Other from Despair. The Fisherman's Case in the Fable is many a man's Case in the World; as with a Wife for the Purpose, with an Office, with an Estatc, with a Court-Commission: He's fayn to Tug Hard for’t before he can Catch it, and Measures the Blessing all the while by the Difficulty of Obtaining it. And what's the Purchase at last when he comes to Cast up his Account but Great Stones and Little Fishes? His only Comfort is, That This World will not Last always ”
