THE STORY OF A STAG
Things
themselves are more important than their sizes. Elephants and camels are big animals. Ants and cockroaches are
small insects. And as the English poet Ben Jonson (1572-1637} said in his poem The Perfect Life:
A lily of a day
Is
fairer far in May
Although
it fall and die that night-
It
was the plant and flower of Light
Look
at the human body. All its parts are not of the same size. You have long legs
but small eyes, likewise one has a big head but a small pair of ears.
Everything
big or small, gigantic or tiny has its own utility. This is what we learn from
the story of the stag who had long horns but a small pair of legs.
Given
below is the full story:
“A stag quenching his thirst in a
clear lake was struck with the beauty of his horns, which he saw reflected in
the water. At the same time, observing the extreme slenderness of his legs, what
a pity said he, that so fine a creature should be furnished with so despicable a pair of legs
! What a truly noble animal I should be, were my legs in any degree answerable to my horns. In the
midst of this soliloquy, he was alarmed by the cry of a pack of hounds. He
immediately flew through the forest, and left his pursuers so far behind, that
he might probably have escaped; but, taking into a thick wood, his horns were
entangled in the branches, where he was held till the hounds came up , and tore
him in pieces.
In
his last moments, he thus exclaimed,----“How ill do we judge of our true advantages
! the legs which I despised would have borne me away in safety, had not my
favourite antlers had betrayed me to ruin.
--------
*Explanation
:
Antlers are large, branched bone
structures that grow on the heads of deer and similar animals.
--------
*Moral:
Value things for their usefulness rather than their appearance.
*********
G.R.Kanwal
24 June 2026
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