"My head," says the boasting Fir tree to the humble Bramble, "is advanced among the stars; I furnish beams for palaces, and masts for shipping; the very sweat of my body is a sovereign remedy for the sick and wounded: whereas thou, O rascally Bramble, runnest creeping in the dirt, and art good for nothing in the world but mischief." "I pretend not to vie with thee," said the Bramble, "in the points thou gloriest in. But, not to insist upon it, that he, who made thee a lofty Fir, could have made thee an humble Bramble, I pray thee tell me, when the carpenter comes next with the axe into the wood, to fell timber, whether thou hadst not rather be a Bramble than a Fir tree?" REFLECTION. The answer of the humble Bramble to the proud Fir tree is so pathetic, that it may of itself serve for a very good moral to this fable. Nothing of God's works is so mean as to be despised, and nothing so lofty but it may be humbled; nay, and the greater the height the greater the danger. For a proud great man to despise a humble little one, when Providence can so easily exalt the one, and abase the other, and has not for the merit of the one, or the demerit of the other, conferred the respective conditions, is a most inexcusable arrogance. The Fir may boast of the uses to which it is put, and of its strength and stature; but then it has not to boast of the creeping Bramble's safety; for the value of the one tempts the carpenter's axe, while the poverty of the other makes it little worth any one's while to molest it. Upon the whole matter, we may add, That as pride or arrogance is a vice that seldom escapes without a punishment; so humility is a virtue that hardly ever goes without a blessing. : A SPIDER, that observed a Swallow catching flies, fell immediately to work upon a net to catch Swallows; for she looked upon it as an encroachment upon her right but the birds, without any difficulty, brake through the work, and flew away with the very net itself. "Well," says the Spider, "bird-catching is none of my talent I perceive;" and so she returned to her old trade of catching flies again. REFLECTION. Every man should examine the strength of his own mind with attention and impartiality, and not fondly flatter himself by measuring his own talents by the false standard of the abilities of another. We can no more adopt the genius of another man, than assume his shape and person; and an imitation of his manner would no more become us, than his clothes. Man is indeed an imitative animal; but whatever we take from general observation, without servilely copying the practice of any individual, becomes so mixed and incorporated with our notions that it may fairly be called our own. Almost every man has something original in himself, which, if duly cultivated, might perhaps procure him esteem and applause; but if he neglects his natural talents, or perverts them by an absurd imitation of others, he becomes an object of ridicule; especially, if he attempts to perform things beyond the compass of his strength or understanding. : THE FOX WITHOUT A TAIL. A Fox taken in a trap was glad to compound for his neck, by leaving his tail behind him. It was so uncouth a sight for a Fox to appear without a tail, that the very thought of it made him weary of his life but, however, for the better countenance of the scandal, he got the master and wardens of the Foxes' company to call a court of assistants, where he himself appeared, and made a learned discourse upon the trouble, the uselessness, and the indecency of Foxes wearing tails. He had no sooner delivered his oration, but up rises a cunning snap, then at the board, who desired to be informed, whether the worthy member that moved against the wearing of tails, gave his advice for the advantage of those that had tails, or to palliate the deformity and disgrace of those that had none. N |