Explore "The Serpent and the File" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A serpent, neighbour to a smith, / (A neighbour bad to meddle with,) / Went through his shop, in search of food, / But nothing found, 'tis understood, / To eat, except a file of steel, / Of which he tried to make a meal. / The file, without a spark of passion, / Address'd him in the following fashion: -- / 'Poor simpleton! you surely bite / With less of sense than appetite; / For ere from me you gain / One quarter of a grain, / You'll break your teeth from ear to ear. / Time's are the only teeth I fear.'
This tale concerns those men of letters, / Who, good for nothing, bite their betters. / Their biting so is quite unwise. / Think you, ye literary sharks, / Your teeth will leave their marks / Upon the deathless works you criticise? / Fie! fie! fie! men! / To you they're brass -- they're steel -- they're diamond! [1]
[1]: Phaedrus, Book IV. 8; also Aesop.