Sidebilder
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

THE COUNTRYMAN AND THE SNAKE.

A VILLAGER, in a frosty, snowy winter, found a Snake under a hedge, almost dead with cold. He had compassion on the poor creature, brought it home, and laid it upon the hearth, near the fire; but it had not lain there long, before, being revived with the heat, it began to erect itself, and to fly at his wife and children, filling the whole cottage with dreadful hissings. The Countryman, hearing an outcry, and perceiving what the matter was, caught up a mattock, and soon despatched him; upbraiding him at the same time in these words: "Is this, vile reptile, the reward you make to me for saving your life?

Die as you deserve; though a single death is too

[blocks in formation]

MORAL.

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!

APPLICATION. What a thrill of pleasure does the reception of a kindness cause in an honourable heart, and how ardent is the longing to repay it in a grateful profusion of service to the benefactor! Just as the brilliancy of the light makes the gloom of the darkness to be thicker, so does the fault of ingratitude increase in its blackness when contemplated by a grateful spirit. It is, indeed, so grievous and despicable a vice, that none but base and unworthy natures can be guilty of it. Examples of its occurrence are too frequent among men; and all teachers and sages who, by their moral maxims and wise counsels, have sought to instruct mankind, have united to hold up the ungrateful to deserved censure and reprobation. The author of this fable helps to expose the meanness of ingratitude, and visits the offender with a punishment commensurate with his crime.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind;

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude.

Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,
When man's worst sin is, he does too much good!

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

Ir was reported that the Lion was sick, and the beasts were made to believe that they could not make their court better than by going to visit him. Upon this, nearly all went; but the Fox was not one of the number. The Lion therefore despatched a jackal to inquire about it, and to ask him why he had so little courtesy and respect as never to come near him at a time when he lay so dangerously ill, and every body else had been to see him. "Why," replies the Fox, "pray present my duty to his majesty, and tell him

that I have the same respect for him as ever, and have been coming several times to kiss his royal hand ; but I am so terribly frightened at the mouth of his cave, to see the print of my fellow-subjects' feet all pointing forwards and none backwards, that I have not resolution enough to venture in." Now, the truth of the matter was, that this sickness of the Lion's was only a pretence to draw the beasts into his den, that he might the more easily devour them.

MORAL. It is easiest learning at another's cost.

APPLICATION. Pain, if rightly regarded, contains within it proofs of mercy and loving-kindness. A sense of suffering is the chief sentinel and preserver of human life. If the warnings given by the endurance of pain were removed, how liable would men perpetually be to eat things fatal, to touch things hurtful, and to inflict on themselves unwitting injuries to their health and safety! The truly wise man will learn not only by his own personal trials, but will profit by the experience of others. The Fox, tracing the footsteps of his companions in one direction, discovered the Lion's den; and by finding none in the opposite track, availed himself of the experience afforded by his friends, and so escaped their fate and destruction. After his example, we may learn from others' pain. It is far better to bor

row experience than to buy it. He that is warned. by the folly of others, has perhaps attained the soundest wisdom. "That is indeed," says Colton, "a twofold knowledge, which profits alike by the folly of the foolish and the wisdom of the wise; it is both a shield and a sword; it borrows its security from the darkness, and its confidence from the light."

Many, who have themselves but little skill

To shape their course where perils may accrue,

Avert full oft the greater share of ill,

And take example from what others do.

Then happy is he by example that can
Take heed by the fall of a mischievèd man.

« ForrigeFortsett »