Aesop's Fables: Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)
44. A STAG DRINKING (Perry 74)
As a Stag was drinking upon the Bank of a clear Stream, he saw his Image
in the Water, and enter’d into this Contemplation upon’t. Well! Says he,
if these pitiful Shanks of mine were but answerable to this branching
Head, I can’t but think how I should defy all my Enemies. The Words were
hardly out of his Mouth, but he discover’d a pack of Dogs coming full
Cry towards him. Away he scours cross the Fields, casts off the Dogs,
and gains a Wood; but pressing thro’ a Thicket, the Bushes held him by
the Hors, till the Hounds came in and pluck’d him down. The last thing
he said was this. What an unhappy Fool was I, to take my Friends for my
Enemies, and my Enemies for my Friends! I trusted to my Head, that has
betray’d me; and I found fault with my Legs, that would have otherwise
brought me off.
THE MORAL. He that does not throughly know himself, may be well allowed
to make a false Judgement upon other Matters that most nearly concern
him.
L'Estrange originally published his version of the fables in 1692. There is a
very nice illustrated edition in the Children's Classics series by Knopf: Sir
Roger L'Estrange. Aesop
- Fables which is available at amazon.com.
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