them their mistake, and they applauded the justice of the execution.

MORAL. The credit got by a lie only lasts till the truth comes out.

APPLICATION. He adds to his fault who would conceal it by hypocrisy. Evil, which is bad enough in itself, assumes a darker dye when it appears in the garb of virtue. The exposure of the hypocrite meets with a universal approbation. "It is better," says a Spanish proverb, "to eat grass and thistles, than to have a hood over the face." Better any condition, however humble, than riches or prosperity gained at the sacrifice of truth.

Truth has such a face and such a mien,
As to be loved needs only to be seen.

A FOWLER went into the woods to shoot. He soon spied a Ringdove among the branches of an oak, and purposed to kill it. He put an arrow to his bow, and was just on the point of letting it fly, when an adder, which he had trod upon under the grass, stung him so painfully in the leg, that he was forced to quit his design. The poison immediately infected his blood, and his whole body began to mortify; which, when he perceived, he could not help owning it to be just. "Fate," says he, "has brought destruction upon me while I was contriving the death of another."

MORAL.

He that mischief hatcheth,

Mischief always catcheth.

APPLICATION. No one more justly merits a misfortune than he who designs an injury to another. If a man plots mischief against an innocent neighbour, and incurs himself a like calamity, his conscience will do its part, and cause him to acknowledge the justice and righteousness of the retribution.

For oft those ills that we for others spread,

Upon ourselves by equal fate are shed.

A Sow had just farrowed, and lay in the stye, with her whole litter of pigs about her. A Wolf, who secretly longed to make a meal of one of them, but knew not how to compass it, endeavoured to insinuate himself into the Sow's good opinion; and, accordingly, coming up to her-" How does the good woman do to-day?" says he. "Can I be of any service to you, Mrs. Sow, in relation to your little family here? If you have a mind to go abroad, and air yourself a little or so, you may depend upon it I will take as much care of your little pigs as you could do yourself." "Your humble servant," says the Sow, "I

thoroughly understand your meaning; and, to let you know I do, I must be so free as to tell you, I had rather have your room than your company; and, therefore, if you would act like a Wolf of honour, and oblige me, I beg I may never see your face again."

MORAL. Services proffered by strangers are to be suspected.

APPLICATION. The open, unsuspecting disposition of youth is often betrayed into accepting the services of strangers, who prove in the end to have had a self-interested motive in their civilities. The person

most worth knowing is not the most forward in making himself known. The Scotch proverb says, "Before you make a friend, eat a peck of salt with him." M. Le Sage, the French moralist, gives this advice: "Soyez desormais en garde contre les louanges; défiez vous des gens que vous ne connoitrez point."

Candid and generous and just,

Boys care but little whom they trust

An error soon corrected;

For who but learns in riper years,

That man, when smoothest he appears,

Is most to be suspected?

Every thing that fair doth show,

When proof is made, proves not so.