THE MONKEY HOLDING COURT
THE Wolf once accused the Fox of having robbed him. The Fox denied that she had stolen anything. The two were brought before Judge Monkey to decide between them. When each in turn had stated his side of the case, the Monkey rendered judgment as follows:
"It is evident, Mr. Wolf, that you have not lost what you ask back! But it is equally evident, Mrs. Fox, that you did take what you so glibly deny!"
Whoever once earns a reputation for lying will not be believed even when he tells the truth.
(Phædrus, Fables, Vol. I, No. 10.)
THE STAG AT THE POOL
A STAG one summer's day came to a pool to quench his thirst, and as he stood drinking he saw his form reflected in the water. "What beauty and strength," said he, "are in these horns of mine; but how unseemly are these weak and slender feet!" While he was thus criticising, after his own fancies, the form which Nature had given him, the huntsmen and hounds drew that way. The feet, with which he had found so much fault, soon carried him out of the reach of his pursuers; but the horns, of which he was so vain, becoming entangled in a thicket, held him till the hunters again came up to him, and proved the cause of his death.
Look to use before ornament.
(Phædrus, Fables, Vol. I, No. 12; Thomas James' translation.)
