A beautiful natures view – “Still waters run deep”
“A Country-man that was to pass a River, sounded it up and down to try where it was most fordable: and upon Trial he made this Observation on’t: Where the Water ran Smooth, he found it Deepest; and on the contrary, Shallowest where it made most Noise. There’s More Danger in a Reserv’d and Silent, than in a Noisy, Babbling Enemy.”
In about 1490 the Italian writer Laurentius Abstemius expanded the proverb into a short fable in Latin titled De rustico amnem transituro in his Hecatomythium and this was subsequently included in European collections of Aesop’s fables.
Above Passage – In 1692 Roger L’Estrange included an outline of the Abstemius version in his edition of the Aesop’s Fables under the title of “ A Country-man and a River” along with the interpretation that men of few words are dangerous.
Chris Edwards Napa 9/14/17
