Page:Florian - The Fables, 1888.djvu/79

Rh While on their blood they let you feed. Like you, I only give a bite; I do, like you, but make them bleed."

"But my dear friend," the leech replied, "I bite to heal, but you to kill; How many patients would have died But for the virtue of my skill! While well men are destroy'd by you, The health of sick men I renew. The difference 'tween us is, in chief, Your bite is poison, mine, relief.

My tale would thus hold up to view, What few have fail'd to see, I wist— The leech presents the true; The viper is the.