The Fables of Florian (tr. Phelps), The Viper and the Blood-Sucker

[

](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/File:Fables_of_Florian38.png)

FABLE XXXII.
THE VIPER AND THE BLOOD-SUCKER.

Once to the leech the viper said—
"How different is our lot!
They who love you would wish me dead;
Men like me not.
They seem to bear for me some spite,

While on their blood they let you feed.
Like you, I only give a bite;
I do, like you, but make them bleed."

"But my dear friend," the leech replied,
"I bite to heal, but you to kill;
How many patients would have died
But for the virtue of my skill!
While well men are destroy'd by you,
The health of sick men I renew.
The difference 'tween us is, in chief,
Your bite is poison, mine, relief.

My tale would thus hold up to view,
What few have fail'd to see, I wist—
The leech presents the Critic true;
The viper is the Satirist.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Wikisource. “The Fables of Florian (tr. Phelps)” by Jean Pierre Claris de Florian (1888) is in the public domain; the text is as transcribed and proofread by Wikisource's volunteers.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.