The lordly lion ’d torn poor wolf’s head from his tail, That so two heads there might not be for one avail. “On them We vengeance took”[336] ’s a well-known sacred text; Wherefore, poor wolf, not quash thyself, when lion’s next? The lion turned, then, to the fox, and bade him share The prey they’d seized; that they might make a meal, not spare. The wily fox, low bowing with a reverence meet, Said: “Sire, the ox your share is, for your breakfast treat. 95 The ibex, then, will suffice for your midday lunch, To serve as stop-gap in the interval of munch. The hare a light repast will furnish ere you sleep; The royal paunch from indigestion’s pains ’twill keep.” The lion answered: “Well said, fox. Thou’rt justice’ self. Who taught thee with such judgment rare to portion pelf? Where didst thou learn to do full justice with great art?” Said he: “My Lord, to teach me was that dead wolf’s part.” The lion thus replied: “For us much love thou’st shown. Take thou all three unto thyself, as very own. 100 Good fox! Thou’st given up thyself entire, for us. Why should I injure thee? Thou’rt I myself. No fuss! Myself am thine; the prey is thine; all,--every bit. Exalt thy head above the spheres. For that thou’rt fit. Thou’st taken warning from that wretched, selfish wolf. No longer fox art thou, my lion, my own self! A wise head ever lessons learns from others’ ills,— Who sees his neighbours victims fall, knows what them kills.” The fox now thanked his stars a hundred, thousandfold, For that the lion first the wolf to share had told; 105 And reasoned: “Had he given me first his high command To share the prey, my life I had not kept in hand. Then praise to Him who ’th placed me low in this world’s scale, To follow after mightier ones when they regale.” So have we heard God’s judgments wrought in ages past On people of the eld;--set forth as mountains fast, That we may learn from them,--the wolves of early days. Then let us, as the fox, glean wisdom from those lays. “God’s people sanctified” ’s the title on us cast, By God’s own Prophet, truthful witness, and the last. 110 The bones, the skeletons of all those old-world wolves, Consider well, ye readers;--think upon yourselves. Who’s wise will from his heart cast out all fond conceits Of greatness, when he hears of ‘Ād’s[337] and Pharaoh’s feats. Unless he warning take from what on others fell, Men shall a moral draw from his case, sad to tell.