Two Pots had been left on the bank of a river, one of brass, and one of earthenware. When the tide rose they both floated off down the stream. Now the earthenware pot tried its best to keep aloof from the brass one, which cried out: “Fear nothing, friend, I will not strike you.”

“The two pots.” Illustration by Arthur Rackham. Published in Aesop’s Fables by V.S. Chesterton (1912), Doubleday Page & Co.

“But I may come in contact with you,” said the other, “if I come too close; and whether I hit you, or you hit me, I shall suffer for it.”

The strong and the weak cannot keep company.