The Fox and the Vizor Mask (Aesop's Fables)
The Fox and the Mask (Joseph Jacobs's Version)
A Fox had by some means got into the store-room of a theatre. Suddenly he observed a face glaring down on him and began to be very frightened; but looking more closely he found it was only a Mask such as actors use to put over their face. “Ah,” said the Fox, “you look very fine; it is a pity you have not got any brains.”
Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.
(From the book The Fables of Aesop: Selected, Told Anew, and Their History Traced by Joseph Jacobs, done into pictures by Richard Heighway — Public Domain).
The Fox and the Mask (George Fyler Townsend's Version)
A Fox entered the house of an actor and, rummaging through all his properties, came upon a Mask, an admirable imitation of a human head. He placed his paws on it and said, “What a beautiful head! Yet it is of no value, as it entirely lacks brains.”
(From the book Three Hundred Æsop’s Fables Literally Translated from the Greek by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend, M.A. — Public Domain)
The Fox and the Vizor Mask (Thomas Bewick's Version)
A Fox being in a shop where Vizor Masks were sold, laid his foot upon one of them, and considering it awhile attentively, at last broke out into this exclamation: Bless me! says he, what a handsome goodly figure this makes! what a pity it is that it should want brains!
Application
The accomplished beau in air and mein how blest,
His hat well fashioned, and his hair well drest,
Is yet undrest within: to give him brains
Exceeds his hatter’s or his barber’s pains.
This Fable is levelled at that numerous part of mankind, who, out of their own ample fortunes take care to accomplish themselves in every thing but common sense, and seem not even to bestow a thought upon the important consequences of cultivating their understandings. The smooth address and plausible behaviour of the varnished fop may indeed pass current with the ignorant and superficial, but however much he may value himself upon his birth or figure, he never fails exciting the contempt or the pity of men of sagacity and penetration, and the ridicule of those who are disposed to amuse themselves at the folly and vanity of such as put on the mask of wisdom to cover their want of brains.
(From the book The Fables of Æsop, and Others, with designs on wood by Thomas Bewick — Public Domain).