• Author: Unknown
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 5
• Page Number:
• Date: 1 12 1916
• Tags:
• advice

A FABLE OF AESOP It is an unfortunate condition of mind of many that they seek to have their wishes gratified by the use of force or a mean spirit of aggressiveness, when a few words spoken in a request, or a slight explanation made would be fully as effective in securing the realization of their desires. We recall to mind a fable of Aesop which illustrates this: A dispute once arose between the Wind and the Sun, which was the stronger of the two, and they agreed to put the point upon this issue, that whichever soonest made a traveler take off his cloak, should be accounted the more powerful. The Wind began, and blew with all his might and main a blast, cold and fierce as a Thracian storm; but the stronger he blew the closer the traveler wrapped his cloak around him, the tighter he grasped it with his hands. Then out broke the Sun; with his welcome beams he dispersed the vapor and the cold; the traveler felt the genial warmth, and as the Sun shone brighter and brighter, he sat down, overcome with the heat, and cast his cloak on the ground. Moral. Persuasion is better than force, and the sunshine of a kind and gentle manner will sooner lay open a poor man's heart than all the threatenings and force of blustering authority.