THE HOG AND THE ACORNS. 149 Quite pleased with his prize. Both in taste and in size, While he ate, he devoured the rest with his eyes. You know I'm in joke, When I say that the oak Moved a bough to the grunter before she spoke. But you know too, in fable, We feel ourselves able To make any thing speak, tree, flower, or table. Said the oak, looking big, "I think, Mr. Pig, You might thank me for sending you fruit from my twig; But, you ill-behaved hog! You devour the prog, And have no better manners I think than a dog." He replied, looking up, Till the acorns were eaten, ay, every cup, My thanks would be due, If from feelings of kindness my supper you threw. Give my children the same, And then you with justice may gratitude claim." MORAL. He merits no praise, To the end of his days Who to those who surround him no service conveys. "HE NEVER TOLD A LIE." MR. PARK, in his travels through Africa, relates that a party of armed Moors having made a predatory attack on the flocks of a village at which he was stopping, a youth of the place was mortally wounded in the affray. The natives placed him on horseback and conducted him home, while his mother preceded the mournful group, proclaiming all the excellent qualities of her boy, and by her clasped hand and streaming eyes, discovered the inward bitterness of her soul. The quality for which she chiefly praised her boy, formed of itself an epitaph so noble, that even civilized life could not aspire to a higher. "He never," said she with pathetic energy, "never, never told a lie." THE HEIFER, GOAT, SHEEP AND LION. A FABLE. A HEIFER, a goat, and a harmless sheep, once went partners with a young lion in a hunting match. When they had caught a stag of uncommon size, the lion, having first divided it into four parts, addressed his fellow sportsmen in the following terms; "I now take up the first part, my good friends," said he, "because I am a lion; and you will certainly allow me to make free with the second, as a compliment to my valor; the third also will very fairly come to my share because I am the strongest; and as to the fourth, wo be to him who dares to meddle with it." ner, he was unjust enough to assign the In this manbooty to him GENERAL NASH.-BAD EXAMPLE. 151 self, because none of his partners were able to dispute his claim. This teaches us never to enter into partnership with a person who is too much above us. GENERAL NASH. GENERAL NASH, in the battle of Germantown, October 4th, 1777, was severely wounded in the thigh, the bone of which was shattered by a grape shot. While they were carrying him off the field, a friend coming up, began to condole with him on his situation, and asked him how he felt ;-"It is unmanly,” said the dying hero, "to complain, but is more than human nature can bear." BAD EXAMPLE. A WICKED example tends to corrupt, in some degree, every one that lives within its baleful influence, more particularly if it be found in men of high rank, great wealth, splendid talents, profound erudition, or popular character. The mischief done by any notorious vice in men of this description is inconceivable. It spreads like a pestilence, and destroys thousands in secrecy and silence, of whom the offender himself knows nothing, and whom probably he never intended to injure. And wherever the heart is corrupted, the principle of faith is proportionably weakened; for no man that gives loose to his passions will choose to have so troublesome a monitor near him as the gospel. When he has learned to disregard the moral precepts of that divine volume, it requires but a slight effort to reject its doctrines, and then to disbelieve the truth of the whole. EQUIVOCATION. An equivocation is nearly related to a lie. It is an intention to deceive, under words of a double meaning, or words, which, literally speaking, are true; this is equally criminal with the most downright breach of truth. A nod or sign may convey a lie, as effectually as the most deceitful language. Whether we deceive by actions or words, we are equally culpable. Every engagement, though of the slightest kind, should be punctually observed, and he who does not think himself bound by such an obligation, has little pretension to the character of an honest man. SPEAKING. THINK before you speak; think before whom you speak; think why you speak; think what you speak. LIFE. WE toil for renown, yet we sigh for repose, We are happy in prospect, yet restless to-day, And we look back on life, from its dawn to its close, To feel that we squandered its treasures away. Though bound by obstructions of clay to our sphere, We love-but the object has withered and died, To remember with grief as we gaze on the tide, The lost-the lamented! Ye cannot return To learn how our souls were with yours interwove; To see the vain flowers that we strew on the urn, Or behold from our sorrow how deep was our love. PROVERBS. "When vice goes before, vengeance follows after." However slowly vengeance may seem to move, it will assuredly overtake the offender at last; and the longer it is coming, the heavier it will fall on him, according to that maxim, that though justice has leaden feet, it has iron hands. "If you trust before you try, You may repent before you die." Under this proverbial distich is couched a good lesson of caution and circumspection; not to choose intimates or friends, before we have experienced their integrity; not to buy things, without knowing whether they are equal in value to their price. "One good turn deserves another." In this proverb the Vice of ingratitude is arraigned; it intimates that mutual offices of love, and alternate helps or assistances, are the fruits and issues of true friendship; that it is both meet and comely, just and equitable to requite kind nesses. “All is well that ends well." It is a plain matter of fact, that the end crowns all things, and that every thing is not to be judged amiss, that may appear so for the present. A worldly misfortune, if it quicken our diligence and industry; a severe fit of sickness, if it |