The Sick Kite

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The Sick Kite

We must make friends in prosperity if we would have their help in adversity.

Townsend version

A kite, sick unto death, said to his mother: "O Mother! do not mourn, but at once invoke the gods that my life may be prolonged." She replied, "Alas! my son, which of the gods do you think will pity you? Is there one whom you have not outraged by filching from their very altars a part of the sacrifice offered up to them?'

Moral

We must make friends in prosperity if we would have their help in adversity.

L'Estrange version (A Sick Kite and Her Mother)

Pray mother (says a sick kite) give over these idle lamentations, and let me rather have your prayers. Alas! my child, (says the dam) which of the gods shall I go to, for a wretch that has robb'd all their altars?

Moral

Nothing but the conscience of a virtuous life can make death easie to us, wherefore there's no trusting to the distraction of an agonizing, and a death-bed repentance.

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