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[These versions are not exactly the same fable, but are similar enough to be included on the same page.]
Townsend version
The fox and the Leopard disputed which was the more beautiful of the two. The Leopard exhibited one by one the various spots which decorated his skin. But the Fox, interrupting him, said, "And how much more beautiful than you am I, who am decorated, not in body, but in mind."
L'Estrange version (A Fox and A Crocodile)
There happen'd a contest betwixt a fox and a crocodile, upon the point of bloud and extraction. The crocodile amplify'd wonderfully upon his family, for the credit of his ancestors. Friend (says the fox, smiling upon't) there will need no herald to prove your gentility; for you carry the marks of your original in your very skin.
Moral
Great boasters and lyars have the fortune still some way or other to disprove themselves.
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Tom Simondi, All Rights Reserved