PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.

A MAN, who had raised himself from a small fortune by successful traffic to a large one, was boasting: "Why, aye," says he, "this it is when a man understands his business: for I have done all this by my own skill." Avarice is insatiable, and so he went pushing on still for more; till, what by wrecks, bankrupts, and pirates, one upon the neck of another, he was reduced, in half the time that he was a rising, to a morsel of bread. "Why this," says he, "is owing to my cursed fortune!" Fortune happened to be at that time within hearing, and told him, that he was an arrogant, ungrateful fellow, to charge her with all the evil that befel him, and to take the good to himself.

REFLECTION.

Our hearts are so much set upon the value of the benefits we receive, that we never think of the bestower of them, and so our acknowledgments are commonly paid to the second hand, without any regard to the principal. We run into mistakes and misfortunes of our own accord ; and then, when we are once disappointed, we lay the blame of them upon others. This or that was not well done, we say; but alas! it was none of our fault: we did it by constraint, advice, importunity, or the authority perhaps of great examples, and the like: at this rate we palliate our own weaknesses and corruptions, and at the same rate we likewise assume to ourselves the merits of others. The thing to be done, in fine, is to correct this arrogance, and be thankful to God for the benefits we receive at his hands; and resign ourselves to his all-wise providence in those dispensations which we are so apt to reckon misfortunes: but which, made a right use of, may frequently turn to our highest benefit, if not in this world, in that to come.

THE COVETOUS MAN AND THE
ENVIOUS ONE.

A COVETOUS Man and an envious one, becoming petitioners to Jupiter, were told, that what the one asked should be doubled on the other. The covetous Man, according to his character, desired great riches, and his companion had them double. This did not, however, satisfy the envious Man, who repining that the covetous Man was but half as rich as himself, requested that one of his own eyes might be put out; for his companion was then to lose both his.

REFLECTION.

The covetous Man in this fable had a very hard put. As avarice is always attended with some envy, it was no small mortification to one who would have been glad to

have engrossed all, to be under a necessity of making another twice as rich as himself by virtue of his own choice. But an envious Man cannot possibly be shown in a stronger light than he is here. For he not only repines that his companion is half as rich as he, though he enjoys his own double share by virtue of the other's prayer; but he chooses to forego all the benefits which he, in his turn, might reap by his petition, lest his neighbour should have double; and prays for a curse upon himself, to wit, that he might lose one of his own eyes, so that the other might lose both his; and be thereby made incapable of enjoying with comfort the acquisition he had so ardently coveted. This remarkable instance of envy and avarice admonishes us to be cautious how we give way to such wicked passions, as not only make the persons governed by them a torment to themselves, but render them at the same time odious to God and

THE FOWLER AND THE RINGDOVE.

A FOWLER took his gun, and went into the woods a shooting. He spied a Ringdove among the branches of an oak, and intended to kill it. He clapped the piece to his shoulder, and took his aim accordingly. But, just as he was going to pull the trigger, an adder, which he had trod upon under the grass, stung him so painfully in the leg, that he was forced to quit his design, and threw his gun down in a passion. The poison immediately infected his blood, and his whole body began to mortify; which, when he perceived, he could not help owning it to be just."Fate," says he, "has brought destruction upon me, while I was contriving the death of another."

REFLECTION.

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