Fables of La Fontaine — Fables CCV and CCVI

THE LIONESS AND SHE-BEAR.

A Mother Lion had lost her young: A hunter had stolen her cub away;

And from the dawn, when the gay birds sung, All through the shadeless hours of day, She filled the forest with huge dismay;

Nor did the night, with its silent charms, Still the voice of this childless mother's alarms.

At length a She-Bear rose, and said, "Do you ever think of the children dead, By your paws and jaws so cruelly slain?

Yet their mothers silent still remain;

And why not you?"

The beast replied, "My child is lost, perhaps has died;

And nothing for me now is left But a life of hope bereft."

"And what condemns you to this wretched fate?"

"Fate!"

echoed then the beast disconsolate.

From since the time the world a world became, All living things have thought or said the same.

You wretched mortals, who bewail That over you Fate's darkest cloud is thrown, Just think of Hecuba's sad tale, Then thank the gods that it is not your own.

FABLE CCVI.

THE MERCHANT, THE NOBLEMAN, THE SHEPHERD, AND THE KING'S SON.

A Merchant, Shepherd, Lord, and a King's Son, Adventuring to a distant land, By waves and shipwrecks utterly undone, Found themselves beggars on a foreign strand.

It matters not to tell at large What chance had joined them in an equal fate;

But, one day, sitting on a fountain's marge, They counsel took, disconsolate.

The Prince confessed, with many a bitter sigh, The ills that fall on those who sit on high.

The Shepherd thought it best to throw All thoughts of former ills afar;-- "Laments," he said, "no medicines are;

So let us use the arts we know, And work, and earn the means to take us back to Rome."

But what is this?

Can prudent language come From Shepherd's mouth?

and is it not, then, true That they alone are wise whose blood is blue?

Surely sheep and shepherd are, As far as thought goes, on a par?

However, wrecked on shores American, Without a choice, the three approved this plan.

The Merchant cried that they should keep a school;

Himself arithmetic would teach by rule, For monthly pay.

"And I," the Prince exclaimed, "Will teach how proper laws for states are framed."

The Noble said, "And I intend to try For pupils in the art of Heraldry."

-- As though such wretched stuff could have A home beyond the Atlantic wave!

Then cried the Shepherd, "Worth all praise Are your intentions; but, remark, the week Has many days.

Now, where a meal to seek I am somewhat in the dark.

Your prospects of success are good, But I am pining, now, for food;

Tell me therefore, comrades, pray, Whence comes to-morrow's meal, and whence the meal to-day?

You seem in your resources rich;

But food to day's a subject which So presses, that I really must Decline to put in you my trust."

This said, the Shepherd in a neighbouring wood Collected fagots, which he sold for food, And shared it kindly with his clever friends, Before their talents had attained their ends, Or, by long fasting, they were forced to go And air their talents in the world below.

From this adventure we, I think, may learn That for life's daily needs much learning is not wanted;

But that to every man the power to earn Food by his labour has been freely granted.

FABLE CCVII.