The Open court . woUwjlbicfx welt ^nt;ct) t)m ftc^ mant^ menfcl? in cui5c vnwTX? vet:/fencfcf A picture illustrating the story accompanies the German text,which reads in English as follows : Such a man (viz., a worldly manliving for pleasure) should be comparedto a man who has fled before a lion thatis chasing him, and has come to a deepwell and laid himself down and clungwith his hands to two little twigs on theedge of the well. Here, resting his feetupon a round stone, he saw before himfour animals with lowered heads, eagerto devour him. And when he turned hisface away from them and looked d
The Open court . woUwjlbicfx welt ^nt;ct) t)m ftc^ mant^ menfcl? in cui5c vnwTX? vet:/fencfcf A picture illustrating the story accompanies the German text,which reads in English as follows : Such a man (viz., a worldly manliving for pleasure) should be comparedto a man who has fled before a lion thatis chasing him, and has come to a deepwell and laid himself down and clungwith his hands to two little twigs on theedge of the well. Here, resting his feetupon a round stone, he saw before himfour animals with lowered heads, eagerto devour him. And when he turned hisface away from them and looked downhe saw a horrible dragon with gapingmouth under him at the bottom of thewell, ready to receive him in his jaws,and he perceived that at the twigs towhich he clung there were two mice one black and one white who gnawed at themwith all their might. As he stood in such great fear not knowing when his end. 5o6 THE OPEN COURT. would come, he saw near him between two stones a little honey which he lickedwith his tongue, and in the sensation of that little sweetness he forgot to give heedas to how he might be released before he should fall and perish. I liken the wellto this world : the four animals to the four elements who have a claim on all menuntil death. The two twigs are the life of man. The white mouse is day and theblack mouse is night, who are constantly gnawing at mans life. The dragon is thegrave of man that all the while is awaiting him. The little honey is the lust of thisworld through which many a man sinks into eternal unrest. The points in which the two forms of the parable differ arevery trivial in comparison with their similarities.^ ipor the history of Bidpais Fables, the migration of which has been closely traced, seeDr. Ernst Kuhns essay in the Abhandlungen der Bayerschen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1893);also Joseph Jacobs Bidpais Fables and Barlaain and Josaphat, k
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade188, booksubjectreligion, bookyear1887
