164.The Goods and the Ills
ALL the goods were once driven out by the ills from that common share which they each had in the affairs of mankind; for the ills by reason of their numbers had prevailed to possess the earth.
The goods wafted themselves to heaven and asked for a righteous vengeance on their persecutors. They begged Sir Success that they might no longer be associated with the ills, as they had nothing in common and could not live together, but were engaged in unceasing warfare; and that an indissoluble law might be laid down for their future protection.
Sir Success granted their request and decreed that henceforth the ills should visit the earth in company with each other, but that the goods should one by one enter the habitations of men.
Hence it arises that ills abound, for they come not one by one, but in troops, and by no means singly: while the goods proceed from Sir Success, and are given, not alike to all, but singly, and separately; and one by one to those who are able to discern them.
❖ Good one is detectable by the vision of the heart.
163.The Goatherd and the Wild Goats
A GOATHERD, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some wild goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night.
The next day it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the fold. He gave his own goats just enough food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own. When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the wild goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains.
The goatherd scolded them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd. One of them, turning about, said to him:
“That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us better than the goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would in the same manner prefer them to ourselves.”
❖ Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones.
❖ One is to welcome the new without dispensing with the old that is fit. Also observe: “It is best to be off with the old love / before you are on with the new.
162.The Goat and the Goatherd
A GOATHERD had sought to bring back a stray goat to his flock. He whistled and sounded his horn in vain; the straggler paid no attention to the summons. At last the goatherd threw a stone, and breaking its horn, begged the goat not to tell his master. The goat replied,
“Why, you silly fellow, the horn will speak though I be silent.”
❖ Do not try to hide things which cannot be hid.
161.The Goat and the Donkey
A MAN once kept a goat and a donkey. The goat, envying the donkey on account of his greater abundance of food, said,
“How shamefully you are treated: at one time grinding in the mill, and at another time carrying heavy burdens”; and he further advised him to pretend to be epileptic and fall into a ditch and so get rest.
The donkey listened to his words, and falling into a ditch, was very much bruised. His master, sending for a leech, asked his advice. He bade him pour on the wounds the lungs of a goat. They at once killed the goat, and so healed the donkey.
❖ Living takes up a great deal of our time.
❖ Goats and men hardly think their fortune too great nor their wit too little.
