THE OLD LION. A LION, worn out with age, lay fetching his last gasp, and agonizing in the convulsive struggles of death; upon which occasion, several of the beasts. who had formerly been sufferers by him, came and revenged themselves upon him. The Boar, with his mighty tusks, drove at him in a stroke that glanced like lightning, and the Bull gored him with his violent horns; which, when the Ass saw they might do without any danger, he too came up, and threw his heels into the Lion's face;-upon which the poor old expiring tyrant uttered these words with his last dying groan: "Alas! how grievous it is to suffer insults, even from the brave and the valiant! but to be spurned by so base a creature as this is worse than dying ten thousand deaths." MORAL. Respect thyself, and thou wilt win the respect of others. APPLICATION. This fable affords as little pleasure to the reader as any contained in this collection. It is not, however, without its uses. The animals represented here as offering these painful indignities to the expiring Lion, are described as having been great sufferers, during his lifetime, from his rule and tyranny. They now, when they can do so with impunity, show their indignant sense of the treatment they had experienced. This conduct can by no means be approved or justified; for, under such circumstances, forgiveness of past injuries would have been the truest revenge. The fable, however, in its broad features, is designed to show that the best title of rulers to the respect of the people whom they govern must be founded on their actions; and that they best conciliate the affections of their subjects by equitable government, an impartial administration of justice, and a preservation of the liberties of the nation. They who most respect themselves, best insure the respect of others. The fable also enforces a lesson of general utility. It shows, if any man would have in later life those compensations— Which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, he must earn them by a virtuous youth, a useful manhood, and a well-spent life. THE HORSE AND THE LOADED ASS. AN idle Horse and an Ass labouring under a heavy burden were travelling the road together; they both belonged to a country fellow who trudged it on foot by them. The Ass, ready to faint under his heavy load, entreated the Horse to assist him, and lighten his burden by taking some of it upon his back. The Horse was ill-natured, and refused to do it; upon which the poor Ass tumbled down in the midst of the highway, and expired in an instant. The countryman, discovering that his Ass was dead, ungirthed his pack-saddle, laid it, with all its burden, upon the Horse, and added to it the skin of the dead Ass; so that the Horse, by his moroseness in refusing to do a small kindness, justly brought upon himself a greater inconvenience. MORAL. A small unkindness is a great offence. APPLICATION. A disobliging temper carries with it its own punishment, and generally produces unhappiness to its possessor. The design of the fable is to teach sympathy with the needs and necessities of our neighbours, and to enjoin the duty of relieving them to the best of our ability, especially in cases in which we know that the applicants for our assistance are doing their best, like the laden Ass in this narrative, to help themselves. Under the influence of this admonition, we should learn to avoid a spirit of selfishness, and should exert ourselves, as opportunities may allow, to lighten the sorrows and to alleviate the distresses of those who are less blessed than we are with the gifts of health, fortune, and worldly prosperity. To each his sufferings; ail are men, The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. E'en he whose soul now melts in mournful lays, |