Heracles and the Flea
A man begs the mighty Heracles to save him the effort of despatching a flea.
Like the Fable of Heracles and the Waggoner, this is a tale about doing all you can before asking for help. Sir Roger L’Estrange, however, took it further. Mindful of the secularism gaining ground in English society, he said the story was a warning to those who give up on religion when trivial matters do not go their way.
abridged
THERE was a Fellow, that upon a Flea-Biting call’d out to Hercules for Help.* The Flea gets away, and the Man Expostulates upon the Matter. Well! Hercules; (says he) You that would not take My Part against a Sorry Flea, will never stand by me in a Time of Need, against a more Powerful Enemy.
We Neglect God in Greater Matters, and Petition him for Trifles, nay and Take Pet at last if we cannot have our Askings. [...] If we cannot Obtain Every Vain Thing we ask, our next Bus’ness is to take Pet at the Refusal, nay and in Revenge to give over Praying for Good and All; and so to Renounce Heaven for a Flea-biting.
abridged
* For a related Fable, see Heracles and the Waggoner.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.