Pagina 9 di 274

That a flowing stream cannot befoul its own fountain, and that

any one who says it does is a tyrant and a liar; that a mouse is

too weak to fight a lion, but too strong for the cords that can

hold a lion; that a fox who gets most out of a flat dish may

easily get least out of a deep dish; that the crow whom the gods

forbid to sing, the gods nevertheless provide with cheese; that

when the goat insults from a mountain-top it is not the goat that

insults, but the mountain: all these are deep truths deeply

graven on the rocks wherever men have passed. It matters nothing

how old they are, or how new; they are the alphabet of humanity,

which like so many forms of primitive picture-writing employs any

living symbol in preference to man. These ancient and universal

tales are all of animals; as the latest discoveries in the oldest

pre-historic caverns are all of animals. Man, in his simpler

states, always felt that he himself was something too mysterious

to be drawn.