prehension of the simplest readers. Its moral is intended to show the difference between the superintendence of the master and the oversight of the servant. The one will see a thousand faults which will altogether escape the observation of the other. The following amusing stories will exemplify the meaning of the author of this fable. A fat man riding upon a lean horse was asked how it came to pass that he was so fat, and the beast that carried him so lean. He replied, "Because I feed myself; but my servant feeds my horse." Again: A farmer once told a wise man that he was daily becoming poorer. Whereupon the wise man gave him a casket, with the strict injunction of taking it daily into his kitchen, garden, storehouse, vineyard, cellar, stable, and fields; and then, on the condition of his not opening the casket till the end of the year, promised him wealth correspondent to his wishes. The farmer obeyed implicitly the commands imposed on him. In the kitchen, he found the cook wasting the meat; in the cellar, the vats leaking; in the garden, the vegetables unhoed; in the stable, the horses starved of their food. All these disorders were remedied by the daily inspection of the owner; and by the year's end the farmer's fortunes were retrieved. The soil on the shoe of the owner is the best manure for his land. The master's eye makes the horse fat. Stirring masters make a rich household. He who trusts to others to plough his land, will have his fields untilled. The eye of the master enricheth the hutch, Happy is he whom sun and lamp sees one; THE DOVE AND THE ANT. THE Ant, compelled by thirst, went to drink in a clear, purling rivulet; but the current, with its circling eddy, snatched her away, and carried her down the stream. A Dove, pitying her distressed condition, cropped a branch from a neighbouring tree, and let it fall into the water; by means of which the Ant saved herself, and got ashore. Not long after, a fowler, having a design upon the Dove, planted his nets in due order, without the bird observing what he was about; which the Ant perceiving, just as he was going to put his design into execution, she bit him by the heel, and made him give so sudden a start that the Dove took the alarm, and flew away. MORAL. Kindness begets kindness. APPLICATION. Gratitude, when truly experienced, is the most influential of all motives. The higher principled the man, the more susceptible he is of the powerful operations of this sentiment. The grateful man realises within his breast a threefold cord of obligation. He is thankful for mercies to the Giver of all good, and seeks by a greater devotion to His service to repay His debt immense of endless gratitude. He is grateful to his earthly benefactor, and will exert himself to the utmost to show his sense of kindnesses received. He is stirred up in his own heart to bestow benefits in his turn on all within his reach. Thus kindness begets kindness. A grateful sense of mercies received leads to the extension of mercies to others. The fable teaches this lesson, and shows how the spirit of gratitude is a fruitful and operative influence, inducing the repayment of blessing by blessing, and causing one good turn to produce another. Their perfume lost, aye to the noble mind Rich gifts were poor, when givers prove unkind. THE TORTOISE AND EAGLE. A TORTOISE, anxious to change his lot on earth, by which he was confined to keep the ground, and desirous to explore the wonders of the air and sky, gave notice that if any bird would take him up in the air, and show him the world, he would reward him with a discovery of many precious stones which he knew to be hidden in a certain cavern of the earth. The Eagle undertook to gratify his wish on the promise of the reward. When he had been lifted up to an immense height, he demanded to know where the promised jewels were concealed; and when he found that the Tortoise could not tell, he suddenly let him |