The ant of today was once a man who, devoted to farming, was not content with the produce of his own labours; he looked with an envious eye on those of others and never stopped stealing his neighbours' fruits. Zeus, indignant at his greed, changed him into the creature we call the ant. But though he changed his shape, he did not change his character; for to this day he goes over the fields, gathers up other people's wheat and barley, and lays them by for his own use.
Those who are wicked by nature may be punished ever so severely, but they do not change their character for all that.
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