The king and his ministers were very much struck with this respectful speech, with the ingenuity of the final inquiry, and with the bear"s paw. It was the paw, however, which made the most lasting impression.
Always give ear to the flattery of your powerful inferiors: it will cheer you in your decline.
LXII.
A philosopher looking up from the pages of the Zend-Avesta, upon which he had been centring his soul, beheld a pig violently a.s.sailing a cauldron of cold slops.
"Heaven bless us!" said the sage; "for unalloyed delight give me a good honest article of Sensuality. So soon as my "Essay upon the Correlation of Mind-forces" shall have brought me fame and fortune, I hope to abjure the higher faculties, devoting the remainder of my life to the cultivation of the propensities."
"Allah be praised!" soliloquized the pig, "there is nothing so G.o.dlike as Intellect, and nothing so ecstatic as intellectual pursuits. I must hasten to perform this gross material function, that I may retire to my wallow and resign my soul to philosophical meditation."
This tale has one moral if you are a philosopher, and another if you are a pig.
LXIII.
"Awful dark--isn"t it?" said an owl, one night, looking in upon the roosting hens in a poultry-house; "don"t see how I am to find my way back to my hollow tree."
"There is no necessity," replied the c.o.c.k; "you can roost there, alongside the door, and go home in the morning."
"Thanks!" said the owl, chuckling at the fool"s simplicity; and, having plenty of time to indulge his facetious humour, he gravely installed himself upon the perch indicated, and shutting his eyes, counterfeited a profound slumber. He was aroused soon after by a sharp constriction of the throat.
"I omitted to tell you," said the c.o.c.k, "that the seat you happen by the merest chance to occupy is a contested one, and has been fruitful of hens to this vexatious weasel. I don"t know _how_ often I have been partially widowed by the sneaking villain."
For obvious reasons there was no audible reply.
This narrative is intended to teach the folly--the worse than sin!--of trumping your partner"s ace.
LXIV.
A fat cow who saw herself detected by an approaching horse while perpetrating stiff and ungainly gambols in the spring sunshine, suddenly a.s.sumed a severe gravity of gait, and a sedate solemnity of expression that would have been creditable to a Brahmin.
"Fine morning!" said the horse, who, fired by her example, was curvetting lithely and tossing his head.
"That rather uninteresting fact," replied the cow, attending strictly to her business as a ruminant, "does not impress me as justifying your execution of all manner of unseemly contortions, as a preliminary to accosting an entire stranger."
"Well, n--no," stammered the horse; "I--I suppose not. Fact is I--I--no offence, I hope."
And the unhappy charger walked soberly away, dazed by the preternatural effrontery of that placid cow.
When overcome by the dignity of any one you chance to meet, try to have this fable about you.
LXV.
"What have you there on your back?" said a zebra, jeeringly, to a "ship of the desert" in ballast.
"Only a bale of gridirons," was the meek reply.
"And what, pray, may you design doing with them?" was the incredulous rejoinder.
"What am I to do with gridirons?" repeated the camel, contemptuously.
"Nice question for _you_, who have evidently just come off one!"
People who wish to throw stones should not live in gla.s.s houses; but there ought to be a few in their vicinity.
LXVI.
A cat, waking out of a sound sleep, saw a mouse sitting just out of reach, observing her. Perceiving that at the slightest movement of hers the mouse would recollect an engagement, she put on a look of extreme amiability, and said:
"Oh! it"s you, is it? Do you know, I thought at first you were a frightful great rat; and I am _so_ afraid of rats! I feel so much relieved--you don"t know! Of course you have heard that I am a great friend to the dear little mice?"
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Yes," was the answer, "I have heard that you love us indifferently well, and my mission here was to bless you while you slept. But as you will wish to go and get your breakfast, I won"t bore you. Fine morning--isn"t it? _Au revoir!"_
This fable teaches that it is usually safe to avoid one who pretends to be a friend without having any reason to be. It wasn"t safe in this instance, however; for the cat went after that departing rodent, and got away with him.
LXVII.
A man pursued by a lion, was about stepping into a place of safety, when he bethought him of the power of the human eye; and, turning about, he fixed upon his pursuer a steady look of stern reproof. The raging beast immediately moderated his rate per hour, and finally came to a dead halt, within a yard of the man"s nose. After making a leisurely survey of him, he extended his neck and bit off a small section of his victim"s thigh.
"Beard of Arimanes!" roared the man; "have you no respect for the Human Eye?"
"I hold the human eye in profound esteem," replied the lion, "and I confess its power. It a.s.sists digestion if taken just before a meal.
But I don"t understand why you should have two and I none."