A PERT and inconsiderate Youth happened to meet an old Man, whose age and infirmity had brought his body almost double. "Pray, father," says he, "will you sell your bow?" "Save your money, you fool," says the man: "when you come to my years, you shall have such a bow for nothing." REFLECTION. There cannot be a greater folly and impertinence than that of young men scoffing at the infirmities of age. We are all born to die, and it is as certain, that we shall go out of the world, as that we are already come into it. We are helpless in infancy, ungovernable in youth; our strength and vigour scarce outlast a morning sun; our infirmities hasten upon us as our years advance, and we grow helpless in our old age as in our infancy. What then have the best of us to boast of? Even time and human frailty alone will bring us to our end without the help of any accidents or distempers; so that our decays are as much the works of nature, as the first principles of our being; and the young man's conceit of the crooked bow, is no better than an irreverent way of making sport with the course of Providence; besides shewing the folly of scoffing at that in another, which he himself was sure to come to at last. A SPLENETIC and a facetious man were once upon a journey: the former went slugging on with a thousand cares and troubles in his head, exclaiming over and over, "Lord, what shall I do to live ?" The other jogged merrily away, and left his matters to Providence and good fortune. "Well, brother," says the sorrowful wight, "how can you be so frolicsome now? As I am a sinner, my heart is even ready to break for fear I should want bread." "Come, come," says the other, "fall back, fall edge, I have fixed my resolution, and my mind is at rest." Aye, but for all that," says the other, "I have known the confidence of as resolute people as yourself has deceived them in the conclusion;" and so the poor man fell into another fit of doubting and musing, till he started out of it all on a sudden : "Good Sir!" says he, "what if I should fall blind?" and so he walked a good way before his companion with his eyes shut, to try how it would be, if that misfortune should befal him. In this interim, his fellow traveller, who followed him, found a purse of money upon the way, which rewarded his trust in Providence; whereas the other missed that encounter as a punishment of his distrust; for the purse had been his, as he went first, if he had not put himself out of condition of seeing it. REFLECTION. He, that commits himself to Providence, is sure of a friend in time of need; while an anxious distrust of the divine goodness makes a man more and more unworthy of it, and miserable beforehand, for fear of being so afterwards, A CROW, ready to die with thirst, flew with joy to a Pitcher which he beheld at some distance. When he came he found water in it, but so near the bottom, that with all his stooping and straining he was not able to reach it. Then he endeavoured to overturn the Pitcher, that at least he might be able to get a little; but his strength was not sufficient for this. At last, seeing some pebbles lie near the place, he cast them one by one into the Pitcher; and thus, by degrees, raised the water up to the very brim, and satisfied his thirst. REFLECTION. Many things which cannot be effected by strength, or by the old vulgar way of enterprising, may yet be brought about by some new and untried means. A man of sagacity and penetration, upon encountering a |