THE VESSEL WITHOUT A PILOT.-EXAMPLE. 79

ful in their own art, ought not to meddle or make with things out of their own sphere, and not presume to correct or amend what they do not understand.

FRANKLIN ON DEATH.

"I LOOK upon death," says Dr. Franklin, "to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning."

THE VESSEL WITHOUT A PILOT.

A FABLE.

A PILOT having refused to take a ship out of port, during very stormy weather, the vessel resolved to break through all restraint; and having reasoned with herself that the sea was large enough to ramble in without danger, and that she was capable of travelling any where, if she had sea room, she, one night, broke from her moorings, and set off without a guide. For a while, she rode in a very stately manner on the water. "How finely I go," said she; "I need no rudder to guide me. Here is room enough; what danger can there be, in the midst of this mighty ocean?" While indulging these dreams, she struck upon a rock, which lay concealed under the water, and instantly split, and went to the bottom.

EXAMPLE.

EVERY man, in whatever station, has, or endeavors to have, his followers, admirers, and imitators; and has therefore the influence of his example to watch with care he ought to avoid not only crimes, but the

appearance of crimes, and not only to practise virtue, but to applaud, countenance and support it. It is possible, for want of attention, that we may teach others faults, from which we ourselves are free; or by a cowardly desertion of a cause, which we ourselves approve, may pervert those who fix their eyes upon us, and having no rules of their own to guide their course, are easily misled by the errors of that example which they choose for their direction.

THE PARABLES OF CHRIST. THERE are two ways of communicating knowledge and instruction; by plain and direct precepts, of which the greatest part of the sermon on the mount consists; and by moral similitudes, or fables, such as the parables which our Savior used, in order to recommend his doctrines, and enforce their duty upon men.

The parables are full of sublime truths and important instructions. Read them with attention and candor, and endeavor to discover the spiritual wisdom and good sentiments which are concealed in them; consider their particular meaning and design, the main object, and leading point in view, and bring the application home to your own mind.

OSTIACK BOY.

A RUSSIAN was travelling from Tobolsk to Beresow. On the road, he stopped one night at the hut of an Ostiack. In the morning, on continuing his journey, he discovered that he had lost his purse, containing about one hundred roubles. The son of the Ostiack, a

THE FROGS WHO DESIRED A KING.

81

boy about fourteen years of age, found the purse while hunting deer; but instead of taking it up, he went and told his father, who was equally unwilling to touch it, and ordered the boy to cover it with some bushes. A few months after, the Russian returned, and stopped at the same hut, but the Ostiack did not recognise him. He related the loss he had met with. The Ostiack listened very attentively; and when he had finished, "You are welcome," said he; "here is my son, who will show you the spot where it lies; no hand has touched it but the one which covered it, that you might recover what you had lost."

The good-natured deity, in order to indulge their request with as little mischief to the petitioners as possible, threw them down a log. At first, they regarded their new monarch with great reverence, and kept from him at a most respectful distance; but perceiving his tame and peaceable disposition, they, by degrees, ventured to approach him with more familiarity, till, at length, they conceived for him the utmost contempt.

In this disposition, they renewed their request to Jupiter, and entreated him to bestow upon them another king. The thunderer, in his wrath, sent them down a Crane; who no sooner took possession of his new dominions, than he began to devour his subjects, one after another, in a most capricious and tyrannical man

ner.

They were now more dissatisfied than before; when, applying to Jupiter a third time, they were dismissed with this reproof; that the evil they complained of they had brought upon themselves; and that they had no remedy now, but to submit to it with patience.

MORAL.

Be content; or you may change from bad to worse.

use.

HUMANE DRIVER REWARDED. A POOR Macedonian soldier was one day leading before Alexander a mule, laden with gold for the king's The beast being so tired that he was neither able to go, nor to sustain the load, the mule-driver took it off, and carried it himself, with great difficulty, a considerable way. Alexander, seeing him just sinking under the burden, and about to throw it on the ground, cried out, "Friend, do not be weary yet; try and carry it quite through to thy tent, for it is all thine own."

TO JANE.-A REPARTEE.

83

TO JANE.

THE wild dove, to the garden spring,
May come and lave its wandering wing,
And bend above the waters bright,.
And murmur, with a dove's delight:
But holier, in the solitude,

Its own pure fountain of the wood,
That blessed home,-that shadowed nest,
Where, soft and sweet, its dear ones rest!
And flinging from those pinions fair
The silver drops that linger there,
The dove will leave the garden spring,
And wave for home its weary wing;
Ah! thus for thee in haunts of light
The stream of joy will sparkle bright,
And thou wilt stay thy step, and sip
The fairy draught with smiling lip,
And linger long amid the flowers,
That blooming, wreathe in pleasure's bowers;
And thou wilt weary, like the dove,
And turn thee from the wave away,
To that fair fount of truth and love,
That springs within thy home for aye:
Oh! calm and blest be there thy rest,
As the wild bird's in woodland nest.

A REPARTEE.

In reply to some observations of Mr. Dundas in the House of Commons, Sheridan observed—" The right honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts."