The lion who wanted to go to war
The lion who wanted to go to war (French Le Lion s'en allant en guerre ) is the 19th fable in the fifth book of the collection of fables by the French poet Jean de la Fontaine .
The lion - king of the beasts - wanted to go to war. So he held a council of war to assign each animal its place in the battle lines. The elephant was assigned to carry the ammunition and weapons on its back; the bear should be ready for a storm; the fox should head the strategic department; the monkey was supposed to distract the enemy with his antics; and so on with the rest of the animals. Some in the congregation suggested that the useless animals such as the clumsy donkey and the frightened rabbit should be released so that the army's operations would not be impeded. The king refused this, however, knowing full well that he needs all his subjects and without these animals his troop would be incomplete - without the donkey with its trumpet-shouting and the nimble rabbit as a courier .
moral
The prudent and wise monarch knows how to give a place to even the least of his subjects , and knows the various talents: there is nothing that is useless to reasonable people.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Randolph Paul Runyon, Randolph Runyon: In La Fontaine's Labyrinth: A Thread Through the Fables . Rookwood Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1-886365-16-2 , pp. 73 ( google.de [accessed on August 8, 2020]).
- ↑ a b Fables Choisies Tome 3 Livre Cinquieme. In: Oldenburg State Library . P. 30 , accessed on August 8, 2020 (French).
- ^ The book of pictures and parables, fables. Illustrated Popular Library Series, London 1859 ( google.de [accessed August 8, 2020]).