The Seagull and the Kite

A SEAGULL having bolted down too large a fish, burst its deep
gullet-bag and lay down on the shore to die. A Kite saw him and
exclaimed: “You richly deserve your fate; for a bird of the air has no
business to seek its food from the sea.”

Every man should be content to mind his own business.




The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox


A LION and a Bear seized a Kid at the same moment, and fought fiercely
for its possession. When they had fearfully lacerated each other and
were faint from the long combat, they lay down exhausted with fatigue.
A Fox, who had gone round them at a distance several times, saw them
both stretched on the ground with the Kid lying untouched in the
middle. He ran in between them, and seizing the Kid scampered off as
fast as he could. The Lion and the Bear saw him, but not being able to
get up, said, “Woe be to us, that we should have fought and belabored
ourselves only to serve the turn of a Fox.”

It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all the
profit.




The Philosopher, the Ants, and Mercury


A PHILOSOPHER witnessed from the shore the shipwreck of a vessel, of
which the crew and passengers were all drowned. He inveighed against
the injustice of Providence, which would for the sake of one criminal
perchance sailing in the ship allow so many innocent persons to perish.
As he was indulging in these reflections, he found himself surrounded
by a whole army of Ants, near whose nest he was standing. One of them
climbed up and stung him, and he immediately trampled them all to death
with his foot. Mercury presented himself, and striking the Philosopher
with his wand, said, “And are you indeed to make yourself a judge of
the dealings of Providence, who hast thyself in a similar manner
treated these poor Ants?”