A HAWK, as it soared on high, seeing a young chicken in the field below, rapidly descended, and seized it in his talons.

“Alas!” said the chicken, “I have no power to struggle, or any hope of saving myself by resisting you in any way. But I pray you listen to me. I am yet young, hardly grown, and am just beginning to enjoy roaming through the fields by myself. Do not cut off my days. I beg you out of pity to spare my life.”

“What you say may be all true,” said the hawk. “I don’t pretend to know whether it is, or is not; all I do know is that I am hungry, and that you are the only food[403]
[404] provided for me. I can’t go into any reasonings behind that.”

Saying which, he dug his talons deeper into the flesh of his victim, and, carrying it off, devoured it on a neighboring tree.

At this a horse that was feeding in the meadow below, and had heard the birds speaking, said to himself:

“As I don’t wear feathers or fly with wings, I won’t presume to judge those who do. But, as for me, I know it is my duty to earn my living by honest labor and let other people alone.”

What may be lawful for others who are living under different conditions from ourselves, affords us no excuse for ever departing from the strict course of mercy and justice.