As a Raven, perched in a lofty tree, was about to eat a piece of cheese, stolen from a window,[13] a Fox espied him, {and} thereupon began thus to speak: “O Raven, what a glossiness there is upon those feathers of yours! What grace you carry in your shape and air! If you had a voice, no bird whatever would be superior to you.” On this, the other, while, in his folly, attempting to show off his voice, let fall the cheese from his mouth, which the crafty Fox with greedy teeth instantly snatched up. Then, too late, the Raven, thus, in his stupidity overreached, heaved a bitter sigh. By this story[14] it is shown, how much ingenuity avails, {and} how wisdom is always an overmatch for strength. [Footnote I.13: _From a window_)--Ver. 3. Burmann suggests that the window of a house in which articles of food were exposed for sale, is probably meant.] [Footnote I.14: _By this story_)--Ver. 13. Heinsius thinks this line and the next to be spurious; because, though Phædrus sometimes at the beginning mentions the design of his Fable, he seldom does so at the end. In this conjecture he is followed by Bentley, Sanadon, and many others of the learned.] FABLE XIV. THE COBBLER TURNED PHYSICIAN. A bungling Cobbler, broken down by want, having begun to practise physic in a strange place, and selling his antidote[15] under a feigned name, gained some reputation for himself by his delusive speeches. Upon this, the King of the city, who lay ill, being afflicted with a severe malady, asked for a cup, for the purpose of trying him; and then pouring water into it, and pretending that he was mixing poison with the fellow’s antidote, ordered him to drink it off, {in consideration of} a stated reward. Through fear of death, the cobbler then confessed that not by any skill in the medical art, but through the stupidity of the public, he had gained his reputation. The King, having summoned a council, thus remarked: “What think you of the extent of your madness, when you do not hesitate to trust your lives[16] to one to whom no one would trust his feet to be fitted with shoes?” This, I should say with good reason, is aimed at those through whose folly impudence makes a profit. [Footnote I.15: _Selling his antidote_)--Ver. 3. “Antidotum” probably means a universal remedy, capable of curing all natural diseases, as well as neutralizing the effects of poison.] [Footnote I.16: _Trust your lives_)--Ver. 15. He seems to pun upon the word “capita,” as meaning not only “the life,” but “the head,” in contradistinction to “the feet,” mentioned in the next line. As in l. 2 we find that he came to a place where he was not known, we must suppose that the Cobbler confessed to the King his former calling.] FABLE XV. THE ASS AND THE OLD SHEPHERD. In a change of government, the poor change nothing beyond the name of their master. That this is the fact this little Fable shows.