This is the illustration of the Blind Men and the Elephant.
Most of us have heard this story in one version or another but it is the story of six blind men who try to learn about the elephant. Each one examines a different part of the elephant and each comes away with a different conclusion. One believes the elephant to be like a wall, having felt the broad side. Another believes the elephant to be a spear, having felt the tusk. The blind man feeling the trunk envisions a snake, the one feeling the leg believes the elephant to be like a tree. The fifth claims the elephant to be like a fan having felt the ear and the last claims the elephant to be like a rope having felt the tail. This story was the basis of a poem by John Saxe and one of the last stanzas provides us application to our lesson today:
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong