THE Horse, adorned with his great war-saddle, and champing his foaming bridle, came thundering along the way, and made the mountains echo with his loud, shrill neighing. He had not gone far, before he overtook an Ass, who was labouring under a heavy burden, and moving slowly on in the same track with himself. Immediately he called out to him, in a haughty, imperious tone, and threatened to trample him in the dirt, if he did not give the way to him. The poor, patient Ass, not daring to dispute the matter, quietly got out of his way as fast as he could, and let him go by. Not long after this, the same Horse, in an en

gagement with the enemy, happened to be shot in the eye, which rendered him unfit to be a charger; so he was stript of his fine trappings, and sold to a carrier. The Ass, meeting him in this forlorn condition, thought that now it was his time to insult; and so says he, Heyday, friend, is it you? Well, I always believed that pride of yours would one day have a fall."

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MORAL. Pride goes before; shame follows after.

APPLICATION. The moral of this fable is attested by universal experience. Pride, of all sentiments, is the one most inconsistent with a just appreciation of the real condition of humanity. In persons of high or of low degree it is equally repulsive, and consequently the proud man in his fall meets neither with sympathy nor commiseration.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment and misguided mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

An ape's an ape, a varlet's a varlet,
Though he be clad in silk or scarlet.

A WOLF, seeing a Lamb one day nursed by a Goat, exclaimed, "Child, you are mistaken; this is not your mother; she is yonder," pointing to a flock of sheep at a distance. "It may be so," says the Lamb; "the person you name may be my mother; but I look upon this charitable Goat in that relation, as she has taken a mother's care of me, and stinted her own kids that I might not want. I owe her a child's duty, as from her alone I have received all the nursing and kindness which hath hitherto supported me in life."

MORAL. He that does not provide for his own is worse than an infidel.

APPLICATION. The connection between parents and children in a Christian land is based on more sacred obligations than prevailed in the country or period in which these fables were composed. It is now founded on a divine institution, and supported by divine authority, and the relative duties of parents and children involve love and obedience on the one hand, and affectionate care and protection on the other. Circumstances may arise when children may be indebted to strangers for the kindly offices ordinarily provided by their parents, in which case the children owe to their benefactors a gratitude, affection, and allegiance commensurate with the benefits conferred on them. Love, says the proverb, can neither be bought nor sold; its only price is love.

The noblest minds their virtue prove
By pity, sympathy, and love.

THE KITE AND THE PIGEONS.

A KITE, who had kept sailing in the air for many days near a dove-house, and made a swoop at several Pigeons, but all to no purpose (for they were too nimble for him), at last had recourse to stratagem, and took his opportunity one day to make a declaration to them, in which he set forth his own just and good intentions, who had nothing more at heart than the defence and protection of the Pigeons in their ancient rights and liberties, and how concerned he was at their fears and jealousies of a foreign invasion, especially their unjust and unreasonable suspicions of himself, as if he intended by force of arms to break in upon their constitution, and erect a tyrannical