time overtake him with all the ease imaginable. In the mean while, the Tortoise came jogging on with slow but continued motion; and the Hare, out of a too great security and confidence of victory, oversleeping herself, the Tortoise arrived at the end of the race first. MORAL. The more haste, the worse speed. APPLICATION. What a strong confirmation is to be found to the truth of this fable in the ordinary experience of mankind! How often does the Tortoise surpass the Hare! How frequently do we find in schools, either public or private, that the prize is finally carried off, not by the boy of greatest attainment or quickest intellect, but by the boy remarkable at once for his dulness and for his perseverance. None can the miracles believe In later life, the same truth is apparent. Success is more frequently the portion of the steady and laborious than of the strikingly quick or superlatively clever man. Industry is the best talent. The value of a work does not consist in the greater or less time occupied in the progress of it, but in its complete and effectual accomplishment. A sculptor is not applauded for the rapidity with which he uses his chisel, but for the exactness of his likeness and the perfect finish of the statue. Under the conviction of these truths, Sir Amias Pawlet used to say, "Stay awhile, to make an end the sooner;" and the Lord Chancellor Eldon chose as the motto of his sergeants' rings the saying (which was also the favourite apothegm of the Roman orator Cato), "Sat cito si sat bene.” To this agrees the French proverb, "Pas à pas on va bien loin." On the contrary, it is said, " Haste trips up its own heels." He that decides in haste, will repent at leisure. If what shone afar so grand, A slow, sure, and steady pace THE YOUNG MAN AND HIS CAT. A CAT having fallen in love with a young man, besought Venus to change her into a girl, in the hope of gaining his affections. The goddess metamorphosed her into a maiden, and the young man married her as his wife. As they were sitting in their chamber, Venus, wishing to know whether in changing her form she had also changed her nature, set down a mouse before her. The Bride, forgetful of her husband, started from her couch, and pursued the mouse as if she would have eaten it on the spot; whereupon the goddess, provoked at her conduct, turned her into a Cat again, that her manners and person might be consistent with each other. MORAL. Nature surpasses nurture. APPLICATION. The attempt to define the laws under which the human mind acts, or to explain the origin and association of human ideas, has baffled the speculations and exceeded the intellect of the wisest and most thoughtful philosophers. It must be sufficient to know that the mind is the seat of human happiness. The mind is its own place, and in itself The problem to be solved is the reconciliation of the freedom of the human will with the evident control and force induced from inveterate habits, which bind the soul with the strength of an adamantine chain. This fable, like the preceding, sets forth the power of long-continued habit over the mind, and shows the difficulty of correcting or counteracting a course of conduct which has obtained the force of a second nature through a long career of self-indulgence. Naturam expelles furcâ tamen usque recurret. The ruling passion, be it what it will,— AN Ass finding the skin of a Lion, put it on; and, going in this disguise into the woods and pastures, threw all the flocks and herds into a terrible consternation. At last, meeting his owner, he would have frightened him also; but the good man, seeing his long ears stick out, at once knew him, and with a good cudgel made him sensible that, notwithstanding his being dressed in a Lion's Skin, he was really no more than an Ass. MORAL. Men should be what they seem to be. |