A Daw With A String at Its Foot

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A Daw With A String at Its Foot

The mind is responsible for our happiness.

L'Estrange version

A country fellow took a daw and ty'd a string to his leg; and so gave him to a little boy to play withal. The daw did not much like his companion, and upon the first opportunity gave him the slip, and away into the woods again, where he was shackled and starv'd. When he came to die, he reflected upon the folly of exposing his life in the woods, rather then live in an easie servitude among men.

Moral

'Tis fancy,not the reason of things, that makes life so uneasie to us as we find it. 'Tis not the place, nor the condition; but the mind alone that can make any body miserable or happy.

[Daw = Jackdaw; a European crow]

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