Page:Fables by La Fontaine translated by Elizur Wright.djvu/79

 BOOK ONE. H Pronounced dame whale too big to suit his taste ; Of flesh and fat she was a perfect waste. The little ant, again, pronounced the gnat too wee ; To such a speck, a vast colossus she. Each censured by the rest, himself content, Back to their homes all living things were sent. Such folly liveth yet with human fools. For others lynxes, for ourselves but moles. Great blemishes in other men we spy, Which in ourselves we pass most kindly by. » As in this world we 're but wayfarers, Kind Heaven has made us wallet- bearers. The pouch behind our own defects must store : The faults of others lodge in that before. VIII. THE SWALLOW AND THE LITTLE BIRDS.» By voyages in air, With constant thought and care, Much knowledge had a swallow gained, Which she for public use retained : The slightest storms she well foreknew, And told the sailors ere they blew. A farmer sowinsj hemp, once having found, She gathered all the little birds around^,