The Wallet by Jean de La Fontaine — Read

From heaven, one day, did Jupiter proclaim, / 'Let all that live before my throne appear, / And there if any one hath aught to blame, / In matter, form, or texture of his frame, / He may bring forth his grievance without fear. / Redress shall instantly be given to each. / Come, monkey, now, first let us have your speech. / You see these quadrupeds, your brothers; / Comparing, then, yourself with others, / Are you well satisfied? ' 'And wherefore not? ' / Says Jock. 'Haven't I four trotters with the rest? / Is not my visage comely as the best? / But this my brother Bruin, is a blot / On thy creation fair; / And sooner than be painted I'd be shot, / Were I, great sire, a bear. ' / The bear approaching, doth he make complaint? / Not he; -- himself he lauds without restraint. / The elephant he needs must criticize; / To crop his ears and stretch his tail were wise; / A creature he of huge, misshapen size. / The elephant, though famed as beast judicious, / While on his own account he had no wishes, / Pronounced dame whale too big to suit his taste; / Of flesh and fat she was a perfect waste. / The little ant, again, pronounced the gnat too wee; / To such a speck, a vast colossus she. / Each censured by the rest, himself content, / Back to their homes all living things were sent. / Such folly liveth yet with human fools. / For others lynxes, for ourselves but moles. / Great blemishes in other men we spy, / Which in ourselves we pass most kindly by. / As in this world we're but way-farers, / Kind Heaven has made us wallet-bearers. / The pouch behind our own defects must store, / The faults of others lodge in that before.[1]

[1]: One of Aesop's: Phaedrus also gives it, Book IV. 10.