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6.

Conversing thus, the two
Whom Fate so strangely had united now
By land, as once by water, by and by
Bethought them of the Sage who from on high,
When each was floundering in the flood below,
Had graciously vouchsafed to let them know
A truth; which he, for the occasion, took
From Seneca; who stole it from the book
Of some Greek Poet; who had borrow'd it
From some one else; to whom some other Wit
Had lent it first. So, forth the two friends set
To find the Sage to whom they owed this debt.
Him, after fruitless search for many a day,
They found, when he was being borne away
To his last resting-place.
Where, as 'tis fit,
This story also ends. No fable it;
160

Albeit not on that account a fact;
Since every fable must have to it tackt
Some sort of moral. But such tales as these
May serve for morals, if their readers please,
To all those fabulous things which so confound us
By really happening in the world around us.
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