203. WALK THRU THURS - Ecclesiastes 10:10 (AXE about it)
Channel: Croak and Crow
Date: 2021-10-22

Ax and You Shall Receive [WALK THRU THURS Ecclesiastes 10:10]

Nothing bothers a man more than to see he has aided his own undoing.

Eliot/Jacobs Version

A Man came into a Wood one day with an axe in his hand, and begged all the Trees to give him a small branch which he wanted for a particular purpose. The Trees were good-natured and gave him one of their branches. What did the Man do but fix it into the axe head, and soon set to work cutting down tree after tree. Then the Trees saw how foolish they had been in giving their enemy the means of destroying themselves.

Townsend version

A man came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a handle for his axe. The Trees consented to his request and gave him a young ash-tree. No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his axe from it, than he began to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the forest. An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar, “The first step has lost us all. If we had not given up the rights of the ash, we might yet have retained our own privileges and have stood for ages.”

Samuel Croxall (The Wood and the Clown)

A COUNTRY fellow came one day into the wood, and looked about him with some concern; upon which the Trees, with a curiosity natural to some other creatures, asked him what he wanted. He replied, that he only wanted a piece of wood to make a handle to his hatchet. Since that was all, it was voted unanimously that he should have a piece of good, sound, tough ash. But he had no sooner received and fitted it for his purpose, than he begun to lay about him unmercifully, and to hack and hew without distinction, felling the noblest trees in all the forest. The Oak is said to have spoken thus to the Beech, in a low whisper, Brother, we must take it for our pains.

Thomas Bewick (The Trees and The Woodman)

A Countryman being in want of a handle for his hatchet, entered a wood and looked among the branches for one that would suit his purpose. The Trees, with a curiosity natural to some other creatures, asked him what he was seeking? He replied that he only wanted a piece of wood to make a handle to his axe, and begged they would be so good as to permit him to serve himself. Since that is all, said the Trees, help yourself, and welcome. He immediately availed himself of the permission, and had no sooner fitted up his instrument, than he began pell-mell to cut and hack about him, felling the noblest trees in all the forest, without distinction. The Oak is said to have spoke thus to the Beech, in a low whisper: Brother, we must take all this for our easy credulity, and imprudent generosity.

JBR Collection (The Wood and The Clown)

A Countryman entered a Wood and looked about him as though he were in search of something. The Trees, moved by curiosity, asked him what it was he wanted. He answered that all he wanted was a piece of good, tough ash for a handle to his axe. The Trees agreed that if that was all, he would have it. When, however, he had got it, and fitted it to his axe, he laid about him unmercifully, and the giants of the forest fell under his strokes. The Oak is said to have spoken thus to the Beech, in a low whisper: “Brother, we must take it for our pains.”

L’Estrange version

A carpenter that had got the iron-work of an axe allready, went to the next forrest to beg only so much wood as would make a handle to’t. The matter seem’d so small that the request was easily granted; but when the timber-trees came to find that the whole wood was to be cut down by the help of this handle, There’s no remedy, they cry’d, but patience, when people are undone by their own folly.

Moral

Nothing goes nearer a man in his misfortunes, then to find himself undone by his own folly, or but any way accessory to his own ruin.

The Trees ask of Man what he lacks;
“One bit, just to handle my axe?”
All he asks … well and good:
But he cuts down the wood,
So well does he handle his axe.

https://fablesofaesop.com/the-trees-and-the-axe.html

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