Seaside Travelers waited by the shore for a boat they saw in the distance to land. When it did they saw it was only a load of wood. Disappointment!
Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities.
Townsend version
Some travelers, journeying along the seashore, climbed to the summit of a tall cliff, and looking over the sea, saw in the distance what they thought was a large ship. They waited in the hope of seeing it enter the harbor, but as the object on which they looked was driven nearer to shore by the wind, they found that it could at the most be a small boat, and not a ship. When however it reached the beach, they discovered that it was only a large faggot of sticks, and one of them said to his companions, “We have waited for no purpose, for after all there is nothing to see but a load of wood.”
Moral
Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities.
Aesop For Children (The Travelers and The Sea)
Two Travelers were walking along the seashore. Far out they saw something riding on the waves.
“Look,” said one, “a great ship rides in from distant lands, bearing rich treasures!”
The object they saw came ever nearer the shore.
“No,” said the other, “that is not a treasure ship. That is some fisherman’s skiff, with the day’s catch of savoury fish.”
Still nearer came the object. The waves washed it up on shore.
“It is a chest of gold lost from some wreck,” they cried. Both Travelers rushed to the beach, but there they found nothing but a water-soaked log.
Moral
Do not let your hopes carry you away from reality.
JBR Collection (Travellers by The Sea-side)
A party of Travellers, who were journeying along by the side of the Sea, saw in the offing something that in the hazy atmosphere loomed large like a vessel. She appeared to be drifting towards the shore, and they determined to wait until she should be stranded. After some time, when the object had come nearer in shore, they fancied that it looked more like a boat than a ship. They waited some time longer, and at last found, to their disappointment, that what they had at first taken for an abandoned vessel, and then for a boat, was nothing but a floating mass of planks and sea-weed.
Note: The JBR Collection has a second, much shorter, version of this fable called The Piece of Wood shown here…
A piece of Wood floating on the sea appeared at a distance to be of some value; but when driven on shore, it was considered insignificant and of no use.
L’Estrange version
A company of people that were walking upon the shore, saw somewhat come hulling toward them a great way off at sea. They took it at first for a ship, and as it came nearer, for a boat only; but it prov’d at last to be no more then a float of weeds and rushes: whereupon they made this reflexion within themselves, We have been waiting here for a mighty bus’ness, that comes at last to just nothing.
Moral
We fancy things to be greater or less at a distance, according to our interest or inclination to have them either the one or the other.
Gherardo Image from 1480
Viatores Iuxta Maris Litus
Viatores quidam, iuxta maris litus iter agentes, cum in editum quemdam locum pervenissent ex eoque sarmenta procul natantia vidissent, navem magnam esse arbitrati, restiterunt ut tandem appelleret exspectantes. At sarmenta a vento acta cum propius accederent, haud navem amplius, sed scapham aspicere existimabant. Illa vero ad litus denique delata, ubi sarmenta esse cognovere, “O quam frustra,” alter alteri aiebat, “quod nihil erat, exspectabamus.”
Perry #177
