[ Fable XXX.]
THE BUTTERFLY AND THE WASP.
Not past but present Fortune must be regarded.
A Butterfly[NF.23] seeing a Wasp flying by: “Oh, sad is our lot,” said she, “derived from the depths of hell, from the recesses of which we have received our existence. I, eloquent in peace, brave in battle, most skilled in every art, whatever I once was, behold, light and rotten, and mere ashes do I fly.[NF.24] You, who were a Mule[NF.25] with panniers, hurt whomsoever you choose, by fixing your sting in him.” The Wasp, too, uttered these words, well suited to her disposition: “Consider not what we were, but what we now are.”
[ Fable XXXI.]
THE GROUND-SWALLOW AND THE FOX.
Confidence is not to be placed in the wicked.
A Bird which the Rustics call a Ground-Swallow (terraneola), because it makes its nest in the ground, chanced to meet a wicked Fox, on seeing whom she soared aloft on her wings. “Save you,” said the other; “why, pray, do you fly from me, as though I had not abundance of food in the meadows,—crickets, beetles, and plenty of locusts. You have nothing to fear, I beg to assure you; I love you dearly for your quiet ways, and your harmless life.” The Bird replied: “You speak very fairly, indeed; however, I am not near you, but up in the air; I shall therefore proceed, and that is the way in which I trust my life to you.”
[ Fable XXXII.]
THE EPILOGUE.[NF.26]
Of those who read this book.
Whatever my Muse has here written in sportive mood, both malice and worth equally join in praising; but the latter with candour, while the other is secretly annoyed.