On a Fall from Horseback

Yesterday, when I heard your horse had suddenly stumbled, my heart was bruised by the news, just as your side was bruised. Scolding the horse, I said: 'You donkey, why did you throw your master off? What a wrong you did!' The horse replied: 'After all, I'm no kinder to him than his own mother and father. So what is it you're saying to me?' 'His father didn't drop him from his back in some worse place, nor did his mother slip and harm him while she carried him.' 'My only fault is this: that at that moment, as his foot left the stirrup, his head didn't come clean off his body.'