Summary: A painting is hung in front of a mirror, so as to deepen its beauty. A wise cat, idol of all the animals (for he lives in the inside of he house and is therefore knowledgeable about all sorts of human things), tells them of the hole that contains the beautiful painting. The ass is skeptical and goes to find out for himself, but stands in front of the mirror. He reports that the cat is lying, and all he saw in the hole was a handsome ass. One by one, the animals go check the contents of this hole: the cow seeing a cow, the lion tells her she is wrong, because there is only a lion in there and the respected elephant only saw an elephant.
Commentary: I read the title "The Fable" and was surprised to find an actual fable with talking animals and the like. Twain actually provides for us the moral of this fable, writing: "You can find in a text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your imagination." This is for people who will only read what's in front of them and discard it without really giving it a chance. It doesn't even have to be something that can be read; it can be an idea or a comment that we reject at face-value.
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"...whereby we learn that, since a hundred million dollars in New York and twenty-two fish-hooks on the border of the Arctic Circle represent the same financial supremacy, a man in straitened circumstances is a fool to stay in New York when he can buy twenty cents worth of fish-hooks and emigrate."
"It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense."
Copyright 2010 Angelica Navarrete
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