THE DOG AND THE SHADOW.
A Dog, crossing a rivulet with a piece of flesh in his mouth, saw his own shadow represented in the clear mirror of the stream; and believing it to be another Dog, who was carrying another piece of flesh, he could not forbear catching at it; but was so far from getting any thing by his greedy design, that he dropt the piece he had in his mouth, which immediately sunk to the bottom, and was irrecoverably lost.
APPLICATION.
Base is the man who pines amidst his store,
And fat with plenty, griping covets more.
Excessive greediness, in the end, mostly misses what it aims at, and he that catches at more than belongs to him, justly deserves to lose what he has. Yet nothing is more common, and, at the same time more pernicious, than this selfish principle. It prevails from the king to the peasant; and all orders and degrees of men are more or less infected with it. Great monarchs have been drawn in by this greedy humour to grasp at the dominions of their neighbours; not that they wanted any thing more to feed their luxury, but to gratify their insatiable appetite for vain glory; and many states have been reduced to the last extremity by attempting such unjust encroachments. He that thinks he sees the estate of another in a pack of cards, or a box and dice, and ventures his own in the pursuit of it, should not repine, if he finds himself a beggar in the end.
THE BEAR AND THE BEE-HIVES.
A Bear, climbing over the fence into a place where Bees were kept, began to plunder the hives, and rob them of their honey; but the Bees, to revenge the injury, attacked him in a whole swarm together; and though they were not able to pierce his rugged hide, yet, with their little stings they so annoyed his eyes and nostrils, that, unable to endure the smarting pain, with impatience he tore the skin over his ears, with his own claws, and suffered ample punishment for the injury he had done the Bees, in breaking open their waxen cells.