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since the water which he drank ran down from the Wolf to him, and therefore it could not be disturbed so far the stream. "Be that as it will," replies the Wolf, "you are a rascal, and I have been told that you treated me with ill language behind my back, about half a year ago."-"Upon my word," says the Lamb, "the time you mention was before I was born." The Wolf, finding it to no purpose to argue any longer against truth, fell into a great passion, snarling and foaming at the mouth, as if he had been mad; and drawing nearer to the Lamb, 66 Sirrah," says he, "if it was not you, it was your father, and that is all one." So he seized the poor, innocent, helpless thing, tore it to pieces, and made a meal of it.

MORAL. The wicked man will always find an excuse for evil-doing.

APPLICATION. A tyrant, whether he be a sovereign on his throne, or a boy at school, or the elected ruler of a republic, will never want a plea for his misconduct. The ill-disposed will easily invent a cause for dispute when he intends to do an injury. Beware of quarrelsome or tyrannical companions; with such, you play with edge-tools.

Forgiveness to the injured doth belong;

They never pardon who have done the wrong.

THE LION AND THE FOUR BULLS.

FOUR Bulls in the same field kept always near one another, and fed together. A Lion often saw them, and desired very much to make them his prey; but though he could easily have fallen upon any one of them singly, he was afraid to attack any of them as long as they kept together, knowing that they would have conquered him. He therefore contented himself with looking on them at a safe distance. He thought, however, of some plan by which he might divide them, and determined to try, by unkind whispers and malicious hints, repeated as if said of the one by the other, to foment jealousies and disunion among them.

This stratagem succeeded so well that the Bulls grew cold and reserved towards each other, and finally separated. No sooner did the Lion see that they fed each one by himself apart, than he fell upon them singly, and devoured every Bull of them, one after another.

MORAL. Union is strength.

APPLICATION. A kingdom or a house divided against itself cannot stand. In all human societies, whether they consist of large states, or are divided into private families, union is the sole secret of strength. War itself, however it may shock the feelings of humanity, is not an unmixed evil, as, by its means, the life of a nation is quickened, and the necessity of union enforced. It has been observed by an eminent political writer, that without the rivalship of nations, and the possibility of war, civil society could scarcely have found an object or a form; and that we should in vain expect to give to any community a sense of union among themselves, unless the impulse to unite was assisted by the operation of foreign hostility. War is the great promoter of social combination. The selfishness of individuals is suppressed in the anxiety to strengthen the united efforts of a people for their general protection; and the public spirit of a nation, weak and inefficient while produced only by the kindly sympathies of our na

ture, is excited to its utmost energy when under the necessity of resisting external enemies.

In private life, the intimacy of friends and companions forms the great charm of the domestic circle; and if we would preserve our friendships, we must take care that they are neither broken by false rumours, nor impaired by the idle reports of whisperers and tale-bearers.

The nation, like the man, who would be free.
Must merit first the right of liberty.

A FROG leaping out of a pond, and placing himself on its bank, made proclamation to all the beasts of the forest that he was a skilful physician, and could cure all manner of diseases. This discourse, uttered in a learned jargon of hard and cramped words, which nobody understood, made the beasts admire his learning, and give credit to his vauntings. At last the Fox asked him, with much indignation, how he, with his thin, lantern jaws, speckled skin, and disfigured body, could set up for one able to cure the infirmities of others.