A traveler wearied from a long journey lay down, overcome withfatigue, on the very brink1 of a deep well. Just as he was aboutto fall into the water, dame2 fortune, it is said, appeared to himand waking him from his slumber3 thus addressed him: "Good sir,pray wake up: for if you fall into the well, the blame will bethrown on me, and I shall get an ill name among mortals; for ifind that men are sure to impute4 their calamities5 to me, howevermuch by their own folly6 they have really brought them onthemselves." 
Everyone is more or less master of his own fate. 