led him to the altar, and prepared to sacrifice him. His head was hung round with fillets of flowers, and the fatal knife was just going to be applied to his throat, when the Ox drew near and whispered him to this purpose: "Behold the end of your insolence and arrogance; it was for this only you were suffered to live at all; and pray now, friend, whose condition is best, your's or mine?"

REFLECTION.

To insult people in distress is the property of a cruel, indiscreet, and giddy temper; for, on the next turn of fortune's wheel, we may be thrown down to their condition, and they exalted to ours.

A HERDSMAN, missing a young heifer that belonged to his herd, went up and down the forest to seek it. And having walked over a great deal of ground to no purpose, he fell a praying to Jupiter for relief; promising to sacrifice a kid to him, if he would help him to a discovery of the thief. After this, he went on a little farther, and came near a grove of oaks, where he found the carcase of his heifer, and a lion grumbling over and feeding upon it. This sight almost frightened him out of his wits; so down he fell upon his knees once more, and addressing himself to Jupiter, "O Jupiter!" says he, "I promised thee a kid to shew me the thief, but now I promise thee a bull, if thou wilt be so merciful as to deliver me out of his clutches."

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REFLECTION.

How ignorant and stupid are some people, who form their notions of the supreme Being from their own poor shallow conceptions; and then, like froward children with their nurses, think it consistent with infinite wisdom and unerring justice, to comply with all their whimsical petitions. Let men but live as justly as they can, and just Providence will give them what they ought to have. Of all the involuntary sins which men commit, scarce any are more frequent than that of their praying absurdly and improperly, as well as unseasonably, when their time might have been so much better employed.

As a Sportsman ranged the fields with his gun, attended by an experienced old Spaniel, he happened to spring a Snipe; and almost at the same instant, a covey of Partridges. Surprised at the accident, and divided in his aim, he let fly too indeterminately, and by this means missed them both. "Ah, my good master," said the Spaniel, " 'you should never have two aims at once. Had you not been dazzled and seduced by the luxurious hope of Partridge, you would most probably have secured your Snipe."