Explore "The Oracle and the Atheist" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
That man his Maker can deceive, / Is monstrous folly to believe. / The labyrinthine mazes of the heart / Are open to His eyes in every part. / Whatever one may do, or think, or feel, / From Him no darkness can the thing conceal. / A pagan once, of graceless heart and hollow, / Whose faith in gods, I'm apprehensive, / Was quite as real as expensive. / Consulted, at his shrine, the god Apollo. / 'Is what I hold alive, or not? ' / Said he, -- a sparrow having brought, / Prepared to wring its neck, or let it fly, / As need might be, to give the god the lie. / Apollo saw the trick, / And answer'd quick, / 'Dead or alive, show me your sparrow, / And cease to set for me a trap / Which can but cause yourself mishap. / I see afar, and far I shoot my arrow. '[1]
[1]: Aesop.