3. The food of fish differs according to
their species. Some feed on mud; others eat sea weed; others
content themselves with the herbs that grow in water. But the
greater part devour each other, and the smaller is food for the larger,
and if one which has possessed itself of a fish weaker than itself
becomes a prey to another, the conqueror and the conquered are both
swallowed up in the belly of the last. And we mortals, do we act
otherwise when we press our inferiors? cf.
Pericles ii. i.
3 Fish. Master, I marvel how the fishes
live in the sea.
1 Fish. Why, as men do
a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones. What difference is there between the
last fish and the man who, impelled by devouring greed, swallows the
weak in the folds of his insatiable avarice? Yon fellow possessed
the goods of the poor; you caught him and made him a part of your
abundance. You have shown yourself more unjust than the unjust,
and more miserly than the miser. Look to it lest you end like the
fish, by hook, by weel, or by net. Surely we too, when we have
done the deeds of the wicked, shall not escape punishment at the
last.