The Trouts and the Gudgeons


1.43. THE TROUTS AND THE GUDGEON. A person can hardly be deemed too cautious, where the first mistake is irretrievable, or fatal.
A Fisherman in the month of May stood angling on the banks of the Thames with an artificial fly. He threw his bait with so much art, that a young Trout was rushing towards it, when she was prevented by her mother. "Never," said she, "my child, be too precipitate, where there is a possibility of danger. Take due time to consider, before you risk an action that may be fatal. How know you whether yon appearance be indeed a fly, or the snare of an enemy? Let someone else make the experiment before you. If it be a fly, he very probably will elude the first attack: and the second may be made, if not with success, at least with safety." —She had no sooner uttered this caution, than a Gudgeon seized upon the pretended fly, and became an example to the giddy daughter of the great importance of her mother's counsel. [more info]

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