SOCIETAS.

CORPORATION

Forte profecturi quinque, aut sex ad mare Rivi,
Convenêre simul rupe sub aëria.
Consilióque habito, visum est coëuntibus unà
Ire patrem versum fluctibus Oceanum.
Viribus ut plures iunctis maioribus essent,
Nec se exiccarent aestus, & ariditas.
Ergo quod ad naves potuit satis esse vehendas:
Fecerunt mistis nabile Flumen aquis.
Unus at indignans aliis se iungere rivis:
Solus in aridulo restitit alveolo.
In genua acclivis contraxit membra, nec ultra
Fusus, ad Oceanum tendere non potuit.
Quin etiam lachrymis penitus defecit abortis
Fons ipse arenti pulverulentus humo.
Exemplum minimis hoc mercatoribus esto,
Qui quaerunt magnas per mare divitias:
Ne socios fugiant: simul at commercia tractent.
Nam si non possunt singula, cuncta valent.

A group of little brooks, some five or six, about to set out for their journey to the sea, met in a place beneath a might cliff. They held a council, and those who met decided to set out together in streams for their father Ocean, so that, their forces united, there being more of them, they would be bigger; and the heat and dryness should not dehydrate them. So, mixing their water, they made a navigable river large enough to carry ships, but one, unwilling to join his banks with the others stayed by himself in the dry bed. He hunched down on his knees and pulled in his arms and legs, and flowed no more; he could not reach the Ocean. Indeed he started crying, and the little fountain dried up in his tears on the parched earth. Let this be an example to the smallest merchants, who earn great profits in the overseas trade: let them not shun new partners while taking care of business; for all are able to do what one cannot.