A FROG, being wonderfully struck with the size and majesty of an Ox that was grazing in the marshes, could not forbear endeavoring to expand herself to the same portly magnitude.

After puffing and swelling for some time, "What think you, sister," said she, "Will this do?" "Far from it." "Will this?" "By no means." "But this will?" "Nothing like it."

In short, after many ridiculous efforts to the same fruitless purpose, the simple Frog burst her skin, and

miserably expired on the spot. The moral of this is, that,

Attempting what is out of our power, only exposes us to ridicule and contempt.

Or him that hopes to be forgiven, it is indispensably required that he forgive. On this great duty, futurity is suspended, and to him who refuses to practise it, it might seem that mercy would be inaccessible.

The discretion of a man deferreth his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. By taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior.

CONDUCT TO INFERIORS.

BE meek, courteous and affable to your inferiors, not proud nor scornful. To be courteous even to the meanest is a true index of a great and generous mind. But the insulting and scornful gentleman, who has been himself originally low, ignoble, or beggarly, makes himself ridiculous to his equals, and by his inferiors, is repaid with scorn, contempt, and hatred.

10

THE WINGED WORSHIPPERS.

Two Swallows having flown into church during divine service, were apostrophized in the following stanzas.

GAY, guiltless pair,

What seek ye from the fields of heaven?

Ye have no need of prayer,

Ye have no sins to be forgiven.

Why perch ye here

Where mortals to their Maker bend?

Can your pure spirits fear

The God ye never could offend?

Ye never knew

The crimes for which we come to weep:

Penance is not for you,

Bless'd wanderers of the upper deep.

To you 't is given

To wake sweet nature's untaught lays ;

Beneath the arch of heaven

To chirp away a life of praise.

Then spread each wing,

Far, far above, o'er lakes and lands,
And join the choirs that sing

In yon blue dome not rear'd with hands.

Or if ye stay

To note the consecrated hour,

Teach me the airy way,

And let me try your envied power.

Above the crowd

On upward wings could I but fly.

I'd bathe in yon bright cloud,
And seek the stars that gem the sky.

"T were heaven indeed

Through fields of trackless light to soar,

On nature's charms to feed

And nature's own great God adore.

REVENGE.

A PASSIONATE and revengeful temper renders a man unfit for advice, deprives him of his reason, and robs him of all that is great or noble in his nature. It makes him unfit for conversation, destroys friendship, changes justice into cruelty, and turns all order into confusion.

Anger may dwell for a moment in the breast of a wise man, but rests permanently only in the bosom of fools. None more impatiently suffer injuries, than those that are most forward in doing them. A more glorious victory cannot be gained over man than this, that when the injury begins on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.

CLEANLINESS.

CLEANLINESS may be considered under the three following remarks. First, it is a mark of politeness, for no one, unadorned with this virtue, can go into company, without giving manifest offence. Second, cleanliness may be said to be the foster-mother of affection. Beauty commonly produces love, but cleanliness preserves it. Age is not unamiable, while it is preserved clean and unsullied. In the third place, it bears analogy with purity of mind, and naturally inspires refined sentiments and passions. It is an excellent preservative of health, and several vices, destructive both to mind and body, are inconsistent with the habit of it.

THE FAITHFUL SPANIARDS.

THE despotic government of Spain, and the blind attachment of the people to the authority of their priests, have not been able to quench that high sense of honor, that has ever distinguished the character of the Spanish nobility; a quality which forms the basis of many of their virtues, and makes the Spaniards amiable, notwithstanding their sloth and bigotry.

In the city of Salamanca is a very celebrated university, where a grandee of the highest rank placed his only son, Don Sebastian, the heir of his immense estate, and the hope of the family, in whose mind he had early implanted the haughty distinctions of family descent, and the most scrupulous attachment to truth. Nature had favored him with many endowments. His person was tall and slender; his eyes black and expressive, which enlivened his swarthy complexion, and corresponded with his black hair, that he wore tied back with a ribbon; his understanding was solid rather than brilliant; and his disposition, though haughty, was generous, and capable of strong attachments.

In the same college was a young man, nearly of Sebastian's age, called Don Ferdinand, whose attainments in the different branches of their education were upon an equality with his own. A constant rivalship