Those persons ought to recognize this as applicable to themselves, whose object is private advantage, and who boast to the unthinking of an unreal merit. FABLE XXIII. THE FAITHFUL DOG. The man who becomes liberal all of a sudden, gratifies the foolish, but for the wary spreads his toils in vain. A Thief one night threw a crust of bread to a Dog, to try whether he could be gained by the proffered victuals: “Hark you,” said the Dog, “do you think to stop my tongue so that I may not bark for my master’s property? You are greatly mistaken. For this sudden liberality bids me be on the watch, that you may not profit by my neglect.” FABLE XXIV. THE FROG AND THE OX. The needy man, while affecting to imitate the powerful, comes to ruin. Once on a time, a Frog espied an Ox in a meadow, and moved with envy at his vast bulk, puffed out her wrinkled skin, {and} then asked her young ones whether she was bigger than the Ox. They said “No.” Again, with still greater efforts, she distended her skin, and in like manner enquired which was the bigger:[23] they said: “The Ox.” At last, while, full of indignation, she tried, with all her might, to puff herself out, she burst her body on the spot. [Footnote I.23: _Which was the bigger_)--Ver. 8. “Quis major esset. Illi dixerunt Bovem.” Bentley censures this line, and thinks it spurious. In good Latin, he says “uter” would occupy the place of “quis,” and “bovem” would be replaced by “bos.”] FABLE XXV. THE DOG AND THE CROCODILE. Those who give bad advice to discreet persons, both lose their pains, and are laughed to scorn. It has been related,[24] that Dogs drink at the river Nile running along, that they may not be seized by the Crocodiles. Accordingly, a Dog having begun to drink while running along, a Crocodile thus addressed him: “Lap as leisurely as you like; drink on; come nearer, and don’t be afraid,” said he. The other {replied}: “Egad, I would do so with all my heart, did I not know that you are eager for my flesh.” [Footnote I.24: _It has been related_)--Ver. 3. Pliny, in his Natural History, B. viii. c. 40, and Ælian, in his Various and Natural Histories, relate the same fact as to the dogs drinking of the Nile. “To treat a thing, as the dogs do the Nile,” was a common proverb with the ancients, signifying to do it superficially; corresponding with our homely saying, “To give it a lick and a promise.” Macrobius, in the Saturnalia, B. i. c. 2, mentions a story, that after the defeat at Mutina, when enquiry was made as to what had become of Antony, one of his servants made answer: “He has done what the dogs do in Egypt, he drank and ran away.” FABLE XXVI. THE FOX AND THE STORK. Harm should be done to no man; but if any one do an injury, this Fable shows that he may be visited with a like return.