Alciato's Book of Emblems

Emblem 105

Those who contemplate the heights, fall

While he deceives thrushes with lime and larks with a net, and the arrow that he loosed pierces the high-flying crane, the heedless fowler strikes down with his foot upon a snake. That avenger of evil shoots forth from its mouth a venom. Thus the man dies, who looks to the stars with drawn-back bow, untroubled by the destiny that lies before his feet.