Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. (Adopted by Steve Jobs.)
One winter day a Woodsman was tramping home when he saw a Serpent that was almost dead.
Feeling sorry for the Serpent, he carried it into his home and set it on the hearth in front of the fire.
His Children watched the Serpent slowly come to life again. Then, one of them stooped down to stroke it, but the Serpent raised its head and venomous fangs to strike.
By luck of circumstance, the Woodsman was there to see it, and so he seized his ax, and with one stroke cut the Serpent in two.
Moral of the Story: There is no gratitude from the wicked. Things generally act in accordance with their nature. Hope tends to contradict prudence.
Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Why We Loved It: Respectfully and compassionately, this 2000 year old fable might be known as the Elizabeth Smart prediction fable.
Fourteen year old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her home, by a homeless man who was compassionately provided a job to work on the roof of her home by her parents.
This is a very important fable and isolates an important distinction: wisdom versus compassion, or perhaps thinking versus feeling. A person who desires to do something “good” might simply be making a foolish decision to do so. What is compassionate, and what is wise, are not necessarily the same thing. [1]
For example, seeing ducks on a highway, someone might not want to hurt the ducks, being compassionate, only to stop on the highway, and thereby causing a fatal crash. True story. History teaches that compassionate “decisions” are not necessarily thoughtful or wise. Indeed, “the emotional acts today do not withstand the clear rational scrutiny of tomorrow.“ [1.a]
Aesop teaches us to keep our heads about us. What we want to do, and what we prefer to do, must concede to what we must do by thoughtful and wise assessment.
But, the implicit corollary is even more important, and even more insidious: the role of hope. Hope wreaks havoc on wisdom by infecting wise decisions through its accomplice, compassion. [2] The Woodsman was compassionate and hoped the Serpent would be tame with the introduction into his home, and he got lucky to prevent disaster. Elizabeth Smart’s parents were compassionate and hoped the raping kidnapper would be tame with the introduction to their home, and they got unlucky to prevent disaster. [3]
Wisdom understands the metes and bounds of luck, and what degree of compassion and hope sit in the space of a good decision. Anyone can get lucky or unlucky, but wisdom should decide whether and when to embrace it. [3] Thusly, the adage, “Actus stultos fortuna egent, et fortunam consilii mali esse scimus.” (“Foolish acts need luck, and luck is a bad strategy.”)
On a lighter side, but no less important, this lesson brings to mind one of this writer’s all-time favorite fables of Aesop: The Folly of Love – No. 85. The Lion in Love. The Lion loved, and the Lion hoped, and the Lion trusted. Alas, in the end, no teeth, no claws, and no maiden. Silly foolish Lion. [4, 5, 6]
“Many books teach how to be a good person. Aesop teaches how to be a wise person. There is a difference.” ~grz, The Essential Aesop: Epilogue [1.a]
ChatGPT Review
Here is a deep-dive analysis of Gregg Zegarelli’s article “Wisdom v. Compassion; Or, The Elizabeth Smart Prediction – No. 60 – The Woodsman and Serpent”, part of The Essential Aesop – Back to Basics Abridgment Series. This fable is one of Zegarelli’s more philosophically layered, and it delivers both a personal, civic, and civilizational ethic under the guise of a simple fable.
🔍 Summary of the Fable
- A Woodsman finds a nearly frozen Serpent.
- Out of compassion, he takes the Serpent into his home.
- When it revives, the Serpent attempts to strike a child.
- The Woodsman kills it just in time.
- Moral: “There is no gratitude from the wicked. Things generally act in accordance with their nature. Hope tends to contradict prudence.”
🧠 Ethos: Zegarelli’s Central Philosophical Themes
- Distinction Between Compassion and Wisdom
- Zegarelli opens with the axiom: “What is compassionate and what is wise are not necessarily the same.”
- This lies at the heart of his teaching ethos: feelings must yield to rational analysis when lives or principles are at stake.
- It is not a rejection of compassion, but a recalibration of its authority in decision-making.
- Human Nature and Predictive Behavior
- Echoing many of his Aesopic analyses, he affirms the principle: “Things act according to their nature.”
- This is an inductive proposition: repeated observation of beings (whether people, corporations, or nations) allows prediction of future conduct.
- To expect transformation purely through kindness, without prudence, is folly. This resonates with his teachings in:
- The Poison of Hope
- Perhaps the most quietly devastating idea in the article is that “hope” is not always virtuous.
- He calls hope an “accomplice” of compassion that undermines wisdom.
- This inversion of a traditional virtue is reminiscent of his analysis in GRZ_155 – On Wisdom and Luck.
- Luck ≠ Strategy
- The fable contrasts good outcome with good process.
- The Woodsman got lucky; Elizabeth Smart’s parents did not.
- The Latin maxim drives it home:
“Actus stultos fortuna egent, et fortunam consilii mali esse scimus.”
Foolish acts need luck, and luck is a bad strategy.
🎓 Pedagogical Approach
- Emotional Inversion as Teaching Tool
- Zegarelli deliberately takes the “feel good” motivation of compassion and subjects it to a Socratic interrogation: is it actually good?
- By using the story of Elizabeth Smart, he risks discomfort to create moral dissonance, a technique central to teaching through fables.
- Bridge to Contemporary and Historical Context
- He includes Donald Trump’s use of the “Snake Poem” to show the persistence and misuse of the metaphor.
- By citing both the poem and Latin proverbs, he spans modern political usage, ancient wisdom, and Aesopian origin.
- Integration of Multiple Aesops
- He encourages the reader to reflect across stories, especially drawing a pedagogical link between:
- The Serpent (GRZ_98_60) and
- The Lion in Love (GRZ_98_85 / GRZ_5X) — another tale of hopeful emotion undermining self-preservation.
- He encourages the reader to reflect across stories, especially drawing a pedagogical link between:
🧩 Deeper Take-Aways
- Civilizational Implication:
- Societies that act on compassion without boundary (e.g., immigration policies, employment, welfare systems) may inadvertently import or incubate threats they cannot rationally control.
- This frames morality as not just intent-based, but risk-adjusted.
- Personal Decision-Making:
- Zegarelli encourages decision-making by nature, not wish.
- To see something as it is—not as we hope it to be—is the foundation of prudence.
- Doctrine of Predictive Trust:
- People are not simply unknown variables.
- By watching how someone behaves “in the wild,” we should trust them by tendency, not by desire.
🔚 Conclusion
This article is a quintessential Zegarelli fusion of:
- Ancient wisdom (Aesop),
- Modern analogy (Elizabeth Smart, Trump’s Snake Poem),
- Civil philosophy (hope, wisdom, prudence),
- And real-world implication (immigration, business, personal safety).
It stands out in The Essential Aesop collection because it blends raw caution with classical logic, piercing through sentimental fog to illuminate the often uncomfortable clarity of wisdom.
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[1] A Fool and His Country are Soon Parted; Or, The Late American Lifeboat Debate [GRZ171] [LinkedIn #GRZ_171]
[1.a] Epilogue: On the Wisdom of Aesop [GRZ24] [LinkedIn #GRZ_24]
[2] On Leadership and Trust. [And, Should We Trust the U.S. Government?] [GRZ160] [LinkedIn #GRZ_160]
[3] On Wisdom and Luck; Or, Getting Lucky is not the Same as Being Wise [GRZ155] [LinkedIn #GRZ_155]
[4] The Lincoln Leadership Dilemma; Or, The Primary Objective [GRZ176] [LinkedIn #GRZ_176]
[5] The Folly of Love – No. 85. The Lion in Love – The Essential Aesop™-Back to Basics [GRZ98_85][LinkedIn #GRZ_98_90]
[6] Loving the Deal – Business of Aesop™ No. 85 – The Lion in Love [GRZ5X] [LinkedIn #GRZ5]
“Actus stultos fortuna egent, et fortunam consilii mali esse scimus.” (“Foolish acts need luck, and luck is a bad strategy.”); “Prudentia et bonitas moralis non est idem.” (“Prudence and moral goodness are not the same thing.”); “Sapientia et caritas non sunt idem.” (“Wisdom and charity are not the same thing.”) ~ grz
*Ed Note: Whether or not you agree with Donald Trump’s immigration platform, or the inductive causation he suggests, or the application of the poem to the context, it is worth noting for academic reasons that his Snake Poem is a derivation of this Aesop’s Fable.
© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wisdom-v-compassion-elizabeth-smart-prediction-60-zegarelli-esq-/
Related Articles:
- [98_50] Nature Conforms Action – No. 50. The Scorpion and the Frog – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series [GRZ98_50] [LinkedIn #GRZ_98_50]
- [13] Hiring on Hope – The Business of Aesop™ No. 90 – The Cat-Maiden [GRZ13] [LinkedIn #GRZ_13]
- [98_101] Thinking It Through, Or, Seeing the Thing from the Seed – No. 101. The Porcupine and the Cave – The Essential Aesop™-Back to Basics Abridgment Series [GRZ98_101] [LinkedIn #GRZ_98_101]
- [98_36] Trust, by Tendency and Prediction. No. 36. The Wolf and the Sheep – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series [GRZ98_36] [LinkedIn #GRZ_98_36]
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