Reputation of a Scorpion

In the writing of the sages, they have related that scorpions are not produced according to the ordinary course of nature, as other animals, for that they devour the mother’s entrails, and tear open her belly, and flee to the desert; and the skins which are found in the holes of scorpions give proof of this matter. I mentioned this extraordinary circumstance to a wise man, who said, “My heart bears evidence to the truth of the observation; and it cannot be otherwise; for since in their infancy they behaved so towards their parents, therefore they are thus approved and beloved in riper age.”

A father exhorted his son, saying, “Young man, store up this lesson in your memory, he who is not grateful to those who gave him birth will never be favored by fortune.” They asked a scorpion why he did not stir abroad in the winter; he replied, “What reputation have I in summer, that I should come again in winter?”