Pragmatism

A stag once, who had lived free and happy in the forest where he was born, after having frisked about and eaten his dinner of grass, wanted to drink.  There was a pretty running stream not far off, as smooth and as clear as glass.  The stag knew this stream very well and had often tasted its sweet cool waters.While he was drinking, he could not help seeing himself in the stream; and, when he had done, he stopped a little longer, to admire his own face, just as I have seen little girls admire themselves in a glass.  He nodded his head.  "I declare," said the stag to himself, "I think I am very pretty, my eyes are so bright, and my nose is so small and slender; but above all, these fine branching horns, what a grace they have!  I do not wonder that all the young hinds should fall in love with me, and wish me for a husband.  Yet I am surprised they dare to be so familiar with so noble a creature, and lick my neck with their tongues as they do sometimes."The stag then began to look a little further.  And yet, thought he, I do not half like these legs--they are so slender and insignificant!  They look like four spindles.  What a creature I should have been, if these pitiful shanks of mine had been answerable to the majesty of my horns.  The stag stayed so long, considering and commentating upon his different parts and members, that at last he heard the cry of the hounds.  I do not know whether he had ever heard it before; but animals seem from the first o know who are their enemies. The little mouse ran away the very first time she saw a cat.Away started the stag, and most gloriously he scampered.  He ran faster than the dogs.  After all, thought he, these legs are not such bad things.  If they are thin and light, they seem on that account only to carry me the faster.  Thinking thus, he still ran as hard as he could, up hill and down dale, across the high road, then turning into a turnip field, and next over a meadow. At last he came to a wood; and, trying to force his way through it, he entangled his horns so among the bushes that he could not get free.  The hounds came up; but the gentlemen were close by and generously saved him from being mangled and killed as he otherwise would have been.  Well, thought the stag, when he saw himself safe, I have learned a lesson to-day that I shall remember as long as I live.  Another time, when I undertake to decide upon the value of a thing, I will consider not merely whether it looks beautiful but what use is to be got from it.  I know now that swift legs are more worth having than the most magnificent horns that ever were.