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 realizes 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 wax poor, when givers prove unkind.

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 fall, and he was dashed to pieces upon a rock, when the Eagle made a rich feast on him.

MORAL. Never make promises you are unable to perform.

APPLICATION. The promise made by any one beyond the power of his performance is accompanied with a twofold injury. It wounds alike the giver and the receiver of the promise. He to whom the promise is made is led to entertain false hopes, and it may be even to enter into arrangements and to make plans, on the assurance given him; and he must experience pain and disappointment on the failure of his expectations. He who makes the promise, and is not able to fulfil its conditions, injures his own reputation as a man of integrity and honour, and rightly merits any painful consequences in which he may be involved by his breach of faith. The fable teaches that a rightly principled man will consider well before he gives his word, and, having done so, he will allow no exertion to fail him in securing its entire and effectual fulfilment.

Count never well gotten that naughty is got,
Nor well to account of which honest is not.

J. AND W RIDER, PRINTERS, LONDON.

го