Meanwhile, the cannon claims the honour over the gunner; the cannon-ball, who actually goes forth on the dread mission, claims it over the cannon, who remains idly behind; the powder reminds the cannon-ball that, but for him, it would still be lying on the arsenal floor; and the match caps the discussion; powder, cannon-ball, and cannon would be all equally vain and ineffectual without fire.

Just then there comes on a shower of rain, which wets the powder and puts out the match, and completes this lesson of dependence, by indicating the negative conditions which are as necessary for any effect, in their absence, as is the presence of this great fraternity of positive conditions, not any one of which can claim priority over any other.

But the fable does not end here, as perhaps, in all logical strictness, it should.

It wanders off into a discussion as to which is the truer greatness, that of the vanquished fire or that of the victorious rain.
And the speech of the rain is charming: 'Lo, with my little drops I bless again And beautify the fields which thou didst blast! Rend, wither, waste, and ruin, what thou wilt, But call not Greatness what the Gods call Guilt.
Blossoms and grass from blood in battle spilt, And poppied corn, I bring.
'Mid mouldering Babels, to oblivion built, My violets spring.
Little by little my small drops have strength To deck with green delights the grateful earth.' And so forth, not quite germane (it seems to me) to the matter in hand, but welcome for its own sake.
Best of all are the fables that deal more immediately with the emotions.
There is, for instance, that of 'The Two Travellers,' which is profoundly moving in conception, although by no means as well written as some others.

In this, one of the two, fearfully frost-bitten, saves his life out of the snow at the cost of all that was comely in his body; just as, long before, the other, who has now quietly resigned himself to death, had violently freed himself from Love at the cost of all that was finest and fairest in his character.