A FABLE.
The crab standing under the rock to catch the fish which crept under it, it came to pass that the rock fell with a ruinous downfall of stones, and by their fall the crab was crushed.
THE SAME.
The spider, being among the grapes, caught the flies which were feeding on those grapes. Then came the vintage, and the spider was cut down with the grapes.
The vine that has grown old on an old tree falls with the ruin of that tree, and through that bad companionship must perish with it.
The torrent carried so much earth and stones into its bed, that it was then constrained to change its course.
The net that was wont to take the fish was seized and carried away by the rush of fish.
The ball of snow when, as it rolls, it descends from the snowy mountains, increases in size as it falls.
The willow, which by its long shoots hopes as it grows, to outstrip every other plant, from having associated itself with the vine which is pruned every year was always crippled.
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.