[From "The Works and Days" in Hesiod, translated by Richard Lattimore, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1959]

MAN AND BEAST

By Hesiod

(c. 800 B.C.)

Now I will tell you a fable for the barons;
they understand it.

This is what the hawk said when he had caught
a nightingale

with spangled neck in his claws and carried her
high among the clouds.

She, spitted on the clawhooks, was wailing pitifully,
but the hawk, in his masterful manner,

gave her an answer:

"What is the matter with you? Why scream?

Your master has you.

You shall go wherever I take you,

for all your singing.

If I like, I can let you go. If I like,

I can eat you for dinner.

He is a fool who tries to match his strength

with the stronger.

He will lose his battle, and with the shame

will be hurt also."

So spoke the hawk, the bird who flies so fast
on his long wings.

You, Perses, should store away in your mind all
that I tell you,

and listen to justice, and put away

all notions of violence.

Here is the law, as Zeus established it

for human beings;

as for fish, and wild animals, and the flying birds,
they feed on each other, since there is no idea

of justice among them;

but to men he gave justice, and she in the end.
is proved the best thing

they have.

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[From Fables of Aesop, according to Sir Roger L'Estrange, 1692]

A LARK IN A NET

By Aesop

(c. 620-560 B.C.)

A POOR lark enter'd into a miserable expostulation with a birdcatcher, that had taken her in his net, and was just about to put her to death. Alas (says she) what am I to dye for now? I am no thief; I have stoln neither gold, nor silver; but for making bold with one pityful grain of corn am I now to suffer.

THE MORAL

'Tis to no purpose to stand reasoning where the adversary is both party

and judge.

[From The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius, Translated by Ku Hung-Ming,

1898]

PRECISION

By Confucius

(c. 551-479 B.C.)

A disciple, the intrepid Chung Yu, said to Confucius on one occasion when the reigning prince of a certain State was negotiating for Confucius to enter his service: "The prince is waiting, sir, to entrust the government of the country to you. Now what do you consider the first thing to be done?"

"If I must begin," answered Confucius, "I would begin by defining the names of things."

"Oh! really," replied the disciple, "but you are too impractical. What has definition of names to do here?"

"Sir," replied Confucius, "you have really no manners. A gentleman, when he hears anything he does not understand, will always wait for an explanation.

"Now, if names of things are not properly defined, words will not correspond to facts. When words do not correspond to facts, it is impossible to perfect anything. Where it is impossible to perfect anything, the arts and institutions of civilisation cannot flourish. When the arts and institutions of civilisation cannot flourish, law and justice cannot attain their ends; and when law and justice do not attain their ends, the people will be at a loss to know what to do.

"Therefore a wise and good man can always specify whatever he names; whatever he can specify, he can carry out. A wise and good man makes it a point always to be exact in the words he uses."

[From Cumae and the Phlegraean Fields by G. Consoli Fiego, Mary A. Raiola, Naples, 1927]

THE TACTIC OF THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS

By G. Consoli Fiego

It is narrated that an old woman, preserving her incognito, arrived in Rome in the fiftieth Olympiad and presenting herself to King Tarquin (the Proud, 534-510 B.C.) offered to sell to him for three hundred philippi of gold, nine books containing the oracles, or the destiny of the world. The king refused to pay a sum that seemed enormous. The woman burned three of the books in his presence and offered him the remaining volumes for the same price. When the king, unwon and still scornful, refused again, the woman calmly consigned another three books to the flames and renewed her offer under the same conditions. Whereupon, the king bewildered by such persistency, acquired the three last books for the price originally demanded and requested her moreover to rewrite the books that were burned. But the woman answered that she could not reproduce them nor could she even tell what they contained unless the god would inspire her.

[From Thucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars (Jowett Translation), Twayne Publishers Inc., New York, 1963]

THE CORINTHIAN WARNING

By Thucydides

(c. 471-400 B.C.)

The Lacedæmonians themselves then proceeded to summon any of their allies or any one else who claimed to have been wronged by the Athenians and, calling their own ordinary assembly, told them to speak. Several of them came forward and brought charges; the Megarians alleged, among many other grounds of difference with Athens, that they were excluded from all harbors within the Athenian dominion and from the Athenian Agora, contrary to the treaty. The Corinthians waited until the other allies had stirred up the Lacedæmonians; at length they came forward and spoke somewhat as follows: "The spirit of trust, Lacedæmonians, which animates your own political and social life, makes you distrustful of us when we bring charges against others; you derive from it your calmness of temper; yet it too often leaves you in ignorance of what is going on outside your own country. Time after time we have warned you of the harm which the Athenians would do to us; but instead of learning the truth of what we told you on each occasion, you chose rather to suspect that we spoke from interested motives. And this is the reason why you have brought the allies here to Sparta, not before, but after the injury has been inflicted. Which of them all has a better right to speak than ourselves, who have the heaviest accusations to make, outraged as we are by the Athenians and neglected by you. If the crimes which they are committing against Hellas were being done in a corner, then you

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might be ignorant; and we should have to inform you of them; but now, what need of many words? Some, as you see, have been already enslaved; they are at this moment intriguing against others, notably against allies of yours; and long ago they had made all their preparations in the prospect of war. Else why did they seduce Corcyra in defiance of us, and why did they blockade Potidea, the latter a most advantageous post for the command of the Thracian region, the former a city that might have furnished the Peloponnesians with a very large fleet?

"And the blame of all this rests on you; for you originally allowed them to fortify their city after the Persian War and afterwards to build their Long Walls, and to this hour you have gone on defrauding of liberty not only the peoples they have enslaved but now your own allies as well. For enslavement is really the work of those who could bring it to an end but have no care about it; and all the more, if they enjoy the honorable claim of being the liberators of Hellas.

"We have met at last, but with what difficulty! And even now we have no definite object. By this time we ought to have been considering not whether we are wronged but how we are to resist. The aggresso have made up their minds while we are resolved about nothing; they are attacking without hesitation. And we know the path by which the Athenians gradually encroach upon their neighbors. While they think that you are too dull to observe them, they are less venturesome; but when they see that you are consciously overlooking their aggressions, they will strike and not spare. Of all Hellenes, Lacedæmonians, you are the only people who never do anything: you defend yourselves against an assailant, not by using your power, but by giving it out that you will; you alone do not destroy your enemies when their strength is beginning to grow, but when it is doubling in size. And yet it used to be said that you were trusty. The report exceeded the truth. We all know that the Persians made their way from the ends of the earth against the Peloponnese before you went out to meet them as you should; and now you look on at the doings of the Athenians, who are not at a distance like the Persians, but close at hand. Instead of attacking your enemy, you prefer to await attack and take the chances of a struggle that has been deferred until his power is much increased. And you know that the barbarians miscarried chiefly through their own errors and that we have more often survived against these very Athenians through blunders of their own than through any aid from you. Some have already been ruined by the hopes which you inspired in them, for so entirely did they trust you that they took no precautions themselves. These things we say in no spirit of enmity-let that be understood but by way of expostulation. For men expostulate with erring friends but bring accusations against enemies who have done them a wrong.

"And surely we have a right to find fault with our neighbors, if any one ever had. There are important interests at stake to which, as far as we can see, you are insensible. And you have never fully considered what manner of men these Athenians are with whom you will have to fight, and how utterly unlike yourselves. They are innovators, equally quick in the conception and in the execution of every plan; while you are careful only to keep what you have and uninventive; in action you