THE Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger. You begin.” So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.
Kindness effects more than severity.
Avian 4, but not included by Caxton in his Selections from Avian. L'Estrange has it as his Fable 223. It occurs also in Babrius, 18, whence it came to the Greek prose Æsop. An epigram of Sophocles against Euripides contains an allusion to this fable (Athen. xiii. 82). The fable is applied to the behaviour of wives by Plutarch: Conj. Praec. chap. xii. It is given by La Fontaine vi. 3, Lôqman (the Arabic Æsop) xxxiv., and Waldis' Esopus i. 89.
SurLaLune Note
Perry 46
