Aesop's Fables: the dogs and the fox

Some Dogs found the skin of a Lion and furiously began to tear it with their teeth. A Fox chanced to see them and laughed scornfully.

"If that Lion had been alive," he said, "it would have been a very different story. He would have made you feel how much sharper his claws are than your teeth."

Lesson: It is easy and also contemptible to kick a man that is down.

(The Aesop for Children With pictures by Milo Winter, 1919, p.54)