The Lotus, the Bees, and the Frogs

The lotus in a pond blossomed. The bees swarmed to enjoy the sight and collect the honey. The frogs in the pond said, "You live so far from the pond: yet you come here so soon as the flowers blossom. How do you find it out?"

"Why, by the sweet smell of the flowers," said the bees.

"We live in the pond, and yet we do not feel the smell. How is it?" said the frogs.

"We can tell you of the smell, but we cannot furnish you with a nose to feel it," said the bees.

"Alas!" said the frogs, in a tone of self-reproach, "of what avail is it that frogs live by the lotus in the same pond if they cannot enjoy the sweet smell of the flower? Yet there is nothing like acquiring the sense of what is fair and sweet."

So they requested the bees to teach them how to enjoy things fair and sweet.

"That is impossible, as we have already told you; for a sense of 'fair and sweet' you see, must be in us when we begin to be!" said the bees, and went about humming round the sweet lotus flowers.