But Not Yet

The Man and the Stone

Æsop was sent one day by his master Xanthus to see what company were at the public bath. He saw that many who came stumbled, both going in and coming out, over a large Stone that lay at the entrance to the bath, and that only one person had the good sense to remove it. He returned and told his master that there was only one Man at the bath. Xanthus accordingly went, and, finding it full of people, demanded of Æsop why he had told him false. Æsop thereupon replied that only he who had removed the Stone could be considered a man, and that the rest were not worthy the name. — The Book of Fables (John B. Alden, Publisher, New York, 1885)