A MAN and a Lion were discussing the relative strength of men and lions in general. The Man contended that he and his fellows were stronger than lions by reason of their greater intelligence. “Come now with me,” he cried, “and I will soon prove that I am right.” So he took him into the public gardens and showed him a statue of Hercules overcoming the Lion and tearing his mouth in two.
“That is all very well,” said the Lion, “but proves nothing, for it was a man who made the statue.”
We can easily represent things as we wish them to be.
(Ro. iv. 15).
Medieval prose Phædrus. Quoted by Plutarch, Apophth. Lacaed. 69. Curiously enough, though this fable is no longer extant in Babrius, it is one of those used by Crusius to prove that Babrius was a Roman; for it exists among those passing under the name of Gabrias, which were certainly derived from a completer Babrius than that now extant. In this the Statue is declared to have been placed upon a sepulchral monument: a custom only found among the Romans and not among the Greeks. The fable also occurs in the Greek prose Æsop, ed. Halm, 63 (which is also derived from the Babrius), and in Avian, 24. It is quoted in Spectator, No. 11.
SurLaLune Note
Perry 284
