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对于二战前在法国长大的孩子来说，
记住 17 世纪诗人让-德拉封丹 (Jean de La Fontaine) 的寓言是一种常见的仪式，就像每天吃面包和苦巧克力一样，把公告放在树下供圣诞老人阅读，或者放在圣诞树上。
寻找耶稣埋在我们蛋糕里的白色小瓷器
主显节在新年的第六天。
同学或老师的表扬是否冲昏了我们的头脑？狐狸和乌鸦的寓言就此诞生：狐狸渴望吃乌鸦嘴里的奶酪，他试图证明乌鸦的歌声和它的羽毛一样耀眼ramage，以此来讨好乌鸦，并在乌鸦啄食时获得了美味的奖品。乌鸦张开嘴唱歌。
我们是否对自己和他人的外表过于自信？拉封丹针对这一弱点提出了许多解药，其中之一是他的《狮子与蚊虫》的故事：百兽之王傲慢地向一只不起眼的昆虫宣战，很快就被小蚊子的毒刺击败并屠杀。
我不知道这些警示故事是否让我们变得更明智，但它们可能会降低我们的自尊心，同时也给我们带来一剂振奋人心的乐观情绪。因为拉封丹为我们提供了一个乌托邦，在这个乌托邦中，小事常常胜过大事，慢事可以胜过快事，默默无闻的人很容易战胜臭名昭著的人。

FOR children who grew up in France before the Second World War, memorizing the fables of the 17th century poet Jean de La Fontaine was a ritual as familiar as daily snacks of bread and bitter chocolate, placing bulletins under the tree for Santa's reading, or at the search for the little white china that Jesus buried in our cake Epiphany on the sixth day of the new year. Had the praise of a peer or teacher gone to our heads? The fable of the Fox and the Raven is born: the Fox, hungry for the cheese held in the Raven's beak, flatters the bird by trying to prove that its song is as dazzling as its plumage (ramage), and collects the delicious prize when the crow opens its beak to sing. Do we have too much confidence in appearances, our own and those of others? One of La Fontaine's many antidotes to this weakness is his tale of The Lion and the Gnat: the king of beasts arrogantly declares war on a humble insect, and is quickly defeated and slaughtered by the pernicious stings of the pipsqueak.