Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

visit Kiôto, and had also ascended Tenôzan; and on the summit the two
frogs met, made acquaintance, and told one another their intentions. So
they began to complain about all the trouble they had gone through, and
had only arrived half-way after all: if they went on to Osaka and Kiôto,
their legs and loins would certainly not hold out. Here was the famous
mountain of Tenôzan, from the top of which the whole of Kiôto and
Osaka could be seen: if they stood on tiptoe and stretched their backs,
and looked at the view, they would save themselves from stiff legs. Having
come to this conclusion, they both stood up on tiptoe, and looked
about them; when the Kiôto frog said—
"Really, looking at the famous places of Osaka, which I have heard so
much about, they don't seem to me to differ a bit from Kiôto. Instead of
giving myself any further trouble to go on, I shall just return home."
The Osaka frog, blinking with his eyes, said, with a contemptuous
smile, "Well, I have heard a great deal of talk about this Kiôto being as
beautiful as the flowers, but it is just Osaka over again. We had better go
home."
And so the two frogs, politely bowing to one another, hopped off
home with an important swagger.
Now, although this is a very funny little story, you will not understand
the drift of it at once. The frogs thought that they were looking in
front of them; but as, when they stood up, their eyes were in the back of
their heads, each was looking at his native place, all the while that he believed
himself to be looking at the place he wished to go to. The frogs
stared to any amount, it is true; but then they did not take care that the
object looked at was the right object, and so it was that they fell into error.
Please, listen attentively. A certain poet says—
"Wonderful are the frogs! Though they go on all-fours in an attitude of
humility, their eyes are always turned ambitiously upwards."
A delightful poem! Men, although they say with their mouths, "Yes,
yes, your wishes shall be obeyed,—certainly, certainly, you are perfectly
right," are like frogs, with their eyes turned upwards. Vain fools! meddlers
ready to undertake any job, however much above their powers!
This is what is called in the text, "casting away your heart, and not knowing
where to seek for it." Although these men profess to undertake any
earthly thing, when it comes to the point, leave them to themselves, and
they are unequal to the task; and if you tell them this, they answer—
"By the labour of our own bodies we earn our money; and the food of
our mouths is of our own getting. We are under obligation to no man. If
we did not depend upon ourselves, how could we live in the world?"
239