A Fox being caught in a steel trap by his tail, was glad to escape with the loss of it. On coming abroad into the world, he began to be so sensible of the disgrace such a defect would bring upon him, that he almost wished he had died rather than left it behind him. However, to make the best of a bad matter, he called an assembly of foxes, and proposed that they should all dock their tails, as a fashion which would be very agreeable and becoming. long harangue upon the unprofitableness of tails in general, and endeavoured chiefly to show the awkwardness and inconvenience of a fox's brush in

He made a

particular; adding, that it would be both more graceful and more expeditious to be altogether without them; and that, for his part, what he had only imagined and conjectured before, he now found by experience; for that he never enjoyed himself so well, or found himself so easy, as he had done since he cut off his tail. He said no more, but looked about him with a brisk air, to see what proselytes he had gained; when a sly old fox in the company, who saw through the reasons of his advice, answered him with a smile: "I believe you may have found it convenient to escape from the trap with the loss of your tail; and when we are in the same circumstances, perhaps we may do so too."

MORAL.

Do not be led into mischief by the example of your friends.

APPLICATION. A singular but common trait of human nature is illustrated in this fable. Men who fall into errors or misfortunes are often found, by a strange infatuation, to be most pleased in involving their friends in the same calamities as themselves. The old Latin proverb,

Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris,

exactly describes this idiosyncrasy, which leads those that suffer for wrong-doing to wish that others should commit errors likewise, and share their sufferings.

The Fox is represented as having exerted his eloquence in vain. This fable teaches the young to avoid rather than to imitate those who, by their own previous bad conduct, prove themselves to be unfitted to give advice, and to comply with their friends no further than conscience

approves.

Example is a living law, whose sway

Men more than all the written laws obey.

A CROW having taken a piece of cheese out of a cottage-window, flew up into a high tree with it, in order to eat it; which a Fox observing, came and sat underneath, and began to compliment the Crow upon her beauty. "I protest," says he, "I never observed it before, but your feathers are of a more delicate white than any thing I ever saw in my life! Ah! what a fine shape and graceful turn of body is there! And I make no question but you have a tolerable voice! If it is but as fine as your complexion, I do not know a bird that can pretend to stand in competition with you." The Crow, tickled

with this very civil language, nestled and wriggled about, and hardly knew where she was; but, thinking the fox a little dubious as to the particular of her voice, and having a mind to set him right in that matter, began to sing, and, in the same. instant, let the cheese drop out of her mouth. This being what the Fox wanted, he snapped it up in a moment, and trotted away, laughing to himself at the easy credulity of the Crow.

MORAL. Flattery finds favour.

The

APPLICATION. The love of praise is natural to man. It is an instinct implanted in his frame by the Author of his being, as a stimulus prompting him to attain to what is noble and great, and thereby to secure the approbation of the worthy and good. perversion of this instinct is a proneness to be pleased with flattery, or the too readily listening to praises carrying with them internal evidence to their being undeserved, by the extravagance of the language in which they are framed, or by the clearly shown selfinterested motives of those by whom they are offered. The author has displayed his usual excellent judgment, and deep acquaintance with human nature, in the construction of this fable. The Crow is an example of human conduct. There are very few, even of the strongest minds, who are not in some degree