A Clock bragged to a Sun Dial how it worked day and night. Just then the sun came out and the Sun Dial noted that the Clock was set wrong. Each needs each.
We depend on one another.
JBR Collection
A Clock which served for many years to repeat the hours and point out time, happened to fall into conversation with a Dial, which also served, when the sun shone, to tell what was the time of day. It happened to be in a cloudy forenoon, when the sun did not shine. Says the Clock to the Dial, “What a mean slavery do you undergo! You cannot tell the hour without the sun pleases to inform you; and now the half of the day is past, and you know not what o’clock it is. I can tell the hour at any time, and would not be in such a dependent state as you are in for the world; night and day are both alike to me. It is just now twelve o’clock.” Upon this the sun shone forth from under the cloud, and showed the exact time of day; it was half an hour past twelve. The Dial then replied to the Clock, “You may now perceive that boasting is not good, for you see you are wrong; it is better to be under direction and follow truth, than to be eye to oneself and go wrong. Your freedom is only a liberty to err, and what you call slavery in my case is the only method of being freely in the right. You see that we should all of us keep our stations, and depend upon one another. I depend upon the sun, and you depend upon me; for if I did not serve to regulate your motions, you see you would for ever go wrong.”