an ant and a fly one day disputed as to their respective merits. "vile creeping insect!" said the fly to the ant, "can you for a moment compare yourself with me? i soar on the wing like a bird. i enter the palaces of kings, and alight on the heads of princes, nay, of emperors, and only quit them to adorn the yet more attractive brow of beauty. besides, i visit the altars of the gods. not a sacrifice is offered but it is first tasted by me. every feast, too, is open to me. i eat and drink of the best, instead of living for days on two or three grains of corn as you do."

"all that is very fine," replied the ant; "but listen to me. you boast of your feasting, but you know that your diet is not always so choice, and you are sometimes forced to eat what nothing would induce me to touch. as for alighting on the heads of kings and emperors, you know very well that whether you pitch on the head of an emperor or of an ass (and it is as often on the one as the other), you are shaken off from both with impatience. and, then, the 'altars of the gods,' indeed! there and everywhere else you are looked upon as nothing but a nuisance. in the winter, too, while i feed at my ease on the fruit of my toil, what more common than to see your friends dying with cold, hunger, and fatigue? i lose my time now in talking to you. chattering will fill neither my bin nor my cupboard."