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THE LEOPARD AND THE FOX.

THE Leopard one day began to boast of the great variety and beauty of his spots, and to declare that he saw truly no reason why even the lion should take place of him, since he could not show so beautiful a skin. As for the rest of the wild beasts of the forest, he treated them all, without distinction, in the most haughty, disdainful manner. But the Fox being among them, went up to him with a great deal of spirit and resolution, and told him that he was mistaken in the value he was pleased to set upon himself; since people of judgment were not used to form their opinion of merit from an outside appearance, but by

considering the good qualities and endowments with

which the mind was stored.

MORAL.

Handsome is that handsome does.

APPLICATION. The power of beauty is a spell universally acknowledged. It has on several occasions influenced events on which the destinies of nations were dependent.

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare,

And beauty draws us with a single hair.

But the power of beauty is at all times temporary and evanescent, and affords no foundation for pride or self-elation.

The fable seeks to establish the superiority of virtue and of mental accomplishments to the charms of personal beauty.

But there is a beauty yet

Far more lasting in the wear,-
That which virtue doth beget,-

Fadeless, bright, beyond compare.

Beauty that clothes the outside of the face
Is curs'd, if it be not clothed with grace.

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A CERTAIN Shepherd's Boy kept his sheep upon a common, and in sport and wantonness would often cry out, "The wolf! the wolf!" By this means he several times drew the husbandmen in an adjoining field from their work; who, finding themselves deluded, resolved for the future to take no notice of his alarm. Soon after, the wolf came indeed. The Boy cried out in earnest; but no heed being given to his cries, the sheep were devoured by the wolf.

MORAL. Jesting lies bring serious sorrows.

APPLICATION. There is no fault from which an honourable mind will more shrink in abhorrence and detestation than from the speaking a falsehood. Truth is as essential to a gentleman as the polish on his sword to an officer on parade. The slightest deviation from the truth, even to the millionth part of one poor scruple, whether by amplitude, suppression, or equivocation, is to be carefully avoided. Our conversation should be after the measure of the oath administered in our courts of law,-the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The moral enforced in this fable would point out the evils of a departure from the truth by showing that a liar, even though he occasionally speaks the truth, will not be believed. His false tongue entails on him the loss of the respect and confidence of his neighbours.

Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie;

A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.

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A Fox, having tumbled into a well, had been contriving for a long while, to no purpose, how he should get out again; when at last a Goat came to the place, and, wanting to drink, asked Reynard whether the water was good. "Good!" says he; "ay, so sweet, that I am afraid I have surfeited myself, I have drunk so abundantly." The Goat upon this, without any more ado, leaped in; and the Fox, taking the advantage of his horns, as nimbly leaped out, leaving the poor Goat at the bottom of the well to shift for himself.

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