The Glow-worm And The Famished Nightingale
A famished Nightingale, who had been singing to very thin houses,
chanced to encounter a Glow-worm at eventide and prepared to make upon
him a light repast. The unfortunate Lampyris Splendidula besought the
Songster, in the sacred name of Art, not to quench his vital spark, and
appealed to his magnanimity. "The Nightingale who needlessly sets claw
upon a Glow-worm," he said, "is a being whom it were gross flattery to
term a Luscinia Philomela." The Bird, however, turned a deaf beak to
these appeals and was about to douse the glim, when the Glow-worm cried
out, "Beware, lest I give you the heartburn; remember how Herod and
Luther died of a diet of Glow-worms," and while the Nightingale (who
was by no means a bad bird at stomach) was considering these
propositions, escaped, hanging out false lights to baffle his enemy's
pursuit.
Moral: Let the dead past bury its dead; act, act in the living
present.