A Cat and Fox were moralizing about how bad killing was. On arrival at their destination a fat Cock and Mouse changed their minds.
It is a common habit among men to talk of what is right and good, and to do what is quite the reverse.
JBR Collection
A Fox and a Cat, travelling together, beguiled the tediousness of their journey by a variety of philosophical conversations. “Of all the moral virtues,” exclaimed Reynard, “mercy is surely the noblest! What say you, my sage friend, is it so?” “Undoubtedly,” replied the Cat, with a most demure countenance; “nothing is more becoming in a creature of any sensibility than a compassionate disposition.” While they were thus moralising and mutually complimenting each other on the wisdom of their respective reflections, a Wolf darted out from a wood upon a flock of sheep which were feeding in an adjacent meadow, and without being in the least affected by the moving lamentations of a poor lamb, devoured it before their eyes. “Horrible cruelty!” exclaimed the Cat. “Why does he not feed on vermin, instead of making his barbarous meals on such innocent creatures?” Reynard agreed with his friend in the observation, to which he added some very pathetic remarks on the odiousness of a sanguinary temper. Their indignation was rising in its warmth and zeal when they arrived at a little cottage by the wayside, where the tender-hearted Reynard immediately cast his eye upon a fine cock that was strutting about in the yard. And now, adieu moralising, he leapt over the pales, and without any sort of scruple demolished his prize in an instant. In the meanwhile, a plump mouse, which ran out of the stable, totally put to flight our Cat’s philosophy, who fell to the repast without the least commiseration. It is a common habit among men to talk of what is right and good, and to do what is quite the reverse.