In the days of knight-errantry and paganism, one of
the old British princes set up a statue to the goddess of
Victory in a point where four roads met together. In her
right hand she held a spear, and her left hand rested upon a
shield. The outside of this shield was of gold and the inside 5
of silver. On the former was inscribed, in the old British
language, "To the goddess ever favorable"; and on the
other, "For four victories obtained successively over the
Picts and other inhabitants of the northern islands."
It happened one day that two knights completely armed, 10
one in black armor, the other in white, arrived from opposite
parts of the country at this statue, just about the same time;
and as neither of them had seen it before, they stopped to
read the inscription and to observe its workmanship.
After contemplating it for some time, "This golden 15
shield--" said the black knight.
"Golden shield!" cried the white knight (who was as
strictly observing the opposite side); "why, if I have my
eyes, it is silver."
"I know nothing of your eyes," replied the black knight; 20
"but if ever I saw a golden shield in my life, this is one."
"Yes," returned the white knight smiling, "it is very
probable indeed that they should expose a shield of gold in
so public a place as this! For my own part, I wonder that
even a silver one is not too strong a temptation for the 25
devotion of some people who pass this way; and it appears
by the date that this has been here above three years."
The black knight could not bear the smile with which
this was delivered and grew so warm in the dispute that it
soon ended in a challenge; they both, therefore, turned
their horses and rode back so far as to have sufficient space
for their career; then, fixing their spears in their rests
they flew at each other with the greatest fury and impetuosity. 5
Their shock was so rude, and the blow on each
side so effectual, that they both fell to the ground much
wounded and lay there for some time as in a trance.
A good druid who was traveling that way found them in
this condition. The druids were the physicians of those 10
times as well as the priests. So he stanched their blood, and
brought them, as it were, from death to life again. As soon
as they were sufficiently recovered he began to inquire into
the cause of their quarrel.
"Why this man," cried the black knight, "will have it 15
that yonder shield is silver."
"And he will have it," replied the white knight, "that
it is gold."
And then they told him all the particulars of the affair.
"Ah!" said the druid, "my brothers, you are both of you 20
in the right and both of you in the wrong. Had either
given himself time to look at the opposite side of the shield,
as well as that which first presented itself to view, all this
ill feeling and bloodshed might have been avoided. Allow
me, therefore, to entreat you by all our gods, and by this 25
goddess of Victory in particular, _never again to enter into
any dispute till you have fairly considered both sides of the
question_."
1. This story is a fable. State the moral in your
own words. Tell a story of your own, with a modern
setting, to enforce the same moral; or one with
animals for characters, as in Æsop's _Fables_.