THE STAG AND THE FOUNTAIN.
Reading edition
THE STAG AND THE FOUNTAIN.
That good from bad men rarely know,
This apologue may serve to show:
A stag upon a fountain's side,
Beheld his branching horns with pride;
While of his spindle-shanks asham'd,
Their disproportioned form he blam'd.
Sudden he hears the hunter's cries,
And to the forest nimbly flies.
The woods receive their well-known guest.
His tangled horns, his feet arrest;
The hounds approach, and seize their prey;
Who, dying, thus was heard to say:
"Wretch that I am! too late I learn,
How little we the truth discern!
What would have saved me, I despis'd,
And what has been my ruin, priz'd!"
