[ Fable VIII.]
THE VIPER AND THE FILE.
Let him who with greedy teeth attacks one who can bite harder, consider himself described in this Fable.
A Viper came[IV.18] into a smith’s workshop; and while on the search whether there was anything fit to eat, fastened her teeth upon a File. That, however, disdainfully exclaimed “Why, fool, do you try to wound me with your teeth, who am in the habit of gnawing asunder every kind of iron?”
[ Fable IX.]
THE FOX AND THE GOAT.
As soon as a crafty man has fallen into danger, he seeks to make his escape by the sacrifice of another.
A Fox, through inadvertence, having fallen into a well,[IV.19] and being closed in by the sides which were too high for her, a Goat parched with thirst came to the same spot, and asked whether the water was good, and in plenty. The other, devising a stratagem, replied: “Come down, my friend: such is the goodness of the water, that my pleasure in drinking cannot be satisfied.” Longbeard descended; then the Fox, mounting on his high horns, escaped from the well, and left the Goat to stick fast in the enclosed mud.
[ Fable X.]
OF THE VICES OF MEN.
Jupiter has loaded us with a couple of Wallets: the one, filled with our own vices, he has placed at our backs, the other, heavy with those of others, he has hung before.
From this circumstance, we are not able to see our own faults: but as soon as others make a slip, we are ready to censure.