Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1)

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German scholar and writer, and among his works is a book of fables. A translation into English appeared in 1825 (the translator's name is not given), which is the source for the fables below: Fables and Epigrams. You can read more about Lessing's life and work at Wikipedia.

Here are five of his fables:

The Ass and the Wolf

An ass once met a hungry wolf. 

"Have pity on me," said the trembling ass; "I am a poor infirm animal: see what a thorn I have run into my foot." 

"You really distress me," replied the wolf, "and I feel myself conscientiously bound to release you from your pain."

The words were no sooner uttered, than the ass was torn to pieces. 

The Lion with the Ass

When the lion took the ass into the woods in order to assist him in the chase by scaring the animals with his frightful voice, a foolish crow exclaimed, "Truly a fine companion! are you not ashamed to walk with an ass?"

"He whom I can use, may walk by my side," returned the lion.

The Ass with the Lion

When the ass accompanied the lion into the woods, he met another ass of his acquaintance, who said, "Good morrow, brother." 

"What assurance!" was the reply. 

"Why so?" said the other; " because you walk with the lion, are you less an ass?"

The Fox and the Tiger 

"I should highly prize your swiftness and strength," said a fox one day to a tiger. 

"And do I possess nothing else which would suit you?" asked the tiger. 

"I am not aware of any." 

"What, would not my handsome skin please you? it is variegated like your mind, so that your inside and outside would correspond." 

"For which very reason I beg to decline it," returned the fox; "so far from being desirous to appear what I am, I wish that I could exchange my fur for feathers."

The Boy and the Serpent

A Boy who was playing with a tame serpent, said to it: "My dear creature, I should not be so familiar were you not deprived of your poison. You serpents are the most wicked and ungrateful of beings. I have read what once happened to a poor countryman who compassionately took up, and warmed in his bosom, a half frozen serpent, perhaps one of your forefathers, which he found behind a hedge. No sooner had the vile reptile recovered sensation and strength, than it stung its benefactor, and caused the good man's death." 

"I am surprised," answered the serpent, "at the partiality of your historians, for ours repeat the affair quite differently. Your honest man imagined the serpent to be frozen to death, and being one of the variegated species, be took it home in order to strip off its beautiful skin." 

"O, I pray, be silent," returned the boy; "ingratitude is never at a loss for an excuse." 

"Right, my child," cried his father, who had been listening to the conversation; "but, nevertheless, whenever you hear of a case of extraordinary ingratitude, examine all the circumstances before you brand any man with so odious an imputation. True benefactors seldom oblige the ungrateful; for the credit of human nature, I will say never. Those who are actuated by mean and selfish motives merit ingratitude instead of acknowledgment. It is their lawful reward."

a 15th-century illustration of the fable
of the frozen snake