Hercules was once travelling along a narrow road when he saw lying on the ground in front of him what appeared to be an apple, and as he passed he stamped upon it with his heel.  To his astonishment, instead of being crushed it doubled in size; and, on his attacking it again and smiting it with his club, it swelled up to an enormous size and blocked up the whole road.  Upon this he dropped his club, and stood looking at it in amazement.  Just then Minerva appeared, and said to him, “Leave it alone, my friend; that which you see before you is the apple of discord:  if you do not meddle with it, it remains small as it was at first, but if you resort to violence it swells into the thing you see.”

THE FOX WHO SERVED A LION

A Lion had a Fox to attend on him, and whenever they went hunting the Fox found the prey and the Lion fell upon it and killed it, and then they divided it between them in certain proportions.  But the Lion always got a very large share, and the Fox a very small one, which didn’t please the latter at all; so he determined to set up on his own account.  He began by trying to steal a lamb from a flock of sheep:  but the shepherd saw him and set his dogs on him.  The hunter was now the hunted, and was very soon caught and despatched by the dogs.

    Better servitude with safety than freedom with danger.

THE QUACK DOCTOR

A certain man fell sick and took to his bed.  He consulted a number of doctors from time to time, and they all, with one exception, told him that his life was in no immediate danger, but that his illness would probably last a considerable time.  The one who took a different view of his case, who was also the last to be consulted, bade him prepare for the worst:  “You have not twenty-four hours to live,” said he, “and I fear I can do nothing.”  As it turned out, however, he was quite wrong; for at the end of a few days the sick man quitted his bed and took a walk abroad, looking, it is true, as pale as a ghost.  In the course of his walk he met the Doctor who had prophesied his death.  “Dear me,” said the latter, “how do you do?  You are fresh from the other world, no doubt.  Pray, how are our departed friends getting on there?” “Most comfortably,” replied the other, “for they have drunk the water of oblivion, and have forgotten all the troubles of life.  By the way, just before I left, the authorities were making arrangements to prosecute all the doctors, because they won’t let sick men die in the course of nature, but use their arts to keep them alive.  They were going to charge you along with the rest, till I assured them that you were no doctor, but a mere impostor.”

THE LION, THE WOLF, AND THE FOX