Why do they put the 1 and 4 engine on the 747 and even 707 so far out from the fuselage? Why not closer to 2 and 3?

During a low speed V1 cut when the engine that fails is one of the outboard engines the loss of thrust being so far away from the fuselage creates a huge and fast yaw movement. Coupled with low airspeed where rudder effectiveness is minimal can cause a dangerous situation if not for very quick action in the abort. Why not put the two outboards closer in? Sounds to me like this would reduce the effect of an outboard failure.

A recent chat with a Boeing stress test engineer didn't provide any answers in his department. Curious if anyone has talked about this?