Plenty of Nothing

Sour Grapes

William Caxton released his edition of Aesop's Fables on this date in 1484. I was going to buy one, but they wanted $1,500! Ach, it's not such a good translation anyway. Source.

Counting Waves

Why tears, honest friend? There's a deal of sense, I think, in that fable of Aesop's where a man sits on the shore by the water's edge to count the waves. When he fails he is hurt and takes it badly, until the Fox comes up to him and says: "Why are you worrying about those that have gone, my noble sir? Let them go and begin your count from here."

Lucius, "Herotimus" (Loeb volume 6, page 413).

Winter Versus Summer

The Huron and the Frenchman

Custom has a mighty effect upon mankind, and more differences arise in character from custom than from natural causes. Perhaps all men are in the state they should be in; they should therefore live contented.

    An airy Frenchman happened to meet a Huron upon the Mississippi, as he went with his bow and shafts to seek provision for his family. Says Monsieur to the savage, You have a very toilsome life of it, who, when other people sit by the fireside, enjoying the benefit of good food and good company, are obliged to traverse the woods in the midst of snow and storms to preserve a wretched existence. How come you by your food? replies the Huron. Does it rain from the clouds for you? No, says the Frenchman; we work in summer, and make provision for winter, and, during the cold months, sit by the fire and enjoy ourselves. For the same reason, says the Huron, do we lay up provisions in winter, that we may rest in summer when the days are hot. Your enjoyments are confined within the walls of a house, and by the side of a fire, but ours are more extensive; we assemble upon the mountains and in the woods in summer for pleasure, and our delights are to observe the works of nature; the sun serves us instead of fire to warm us, and we are never at a loss for houses while the woods remain. This is the season when we lay up our store, and it serves us in summer till winter return. We are accustomed to endure the cold, and our exercise keeps us from feeling it to excess. At night the skins of wild beasts keep us from the cold till the morning dawn, and then we pursue the same employments. Were we not to live in this manner, the wild beasts would so increase, that they would become our masters; but our necessity of having food and clothing prevents them from increasing to very great numbers. What you account pleasure, would be none to us; and your manner of life appears as ridiculous to the Hurons, as ours appears to you. You reckon us idolaters, because we pay adoration to the rising sun; but you misunderstand us; we consider that light to be a symbol of the Great Author of Nature, and only worship him through this luminary. We do not misunderstand your manner of worship, which appears to us abundantly absurd; for the Diety is no more like images of gold and silver, than he is like the sun. The sun is a more glorious effect of his power and goodness; for he serves many excellent purposes, and we could not live without him; but your symbols appear to have no use. The Frenchman could make no reply, and the Huron proceeded on his hunting.

Bewick's Select Fables of Aesop and Others (1784), pages 12-14. Source.

De Viatore et Alumno

Increasingly interested in Aesop's Fables lately. People have been translating, adding to and re-moralizing these things since Egyptian times. This woodcut comes from a 16th-century Spanish edition and accompanies the fable of the traveler who startles a satyr by blowing on his hands to warm them, then his drink to cool it. In the Caxton edition the satyr is a "wodewose" and his leafy hut a "pytte", but it's the same story and moral: don't trust anyone who blows hot and cold out of the same mouth. Plenty more Aesopica here. Douglas