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." "A WOLF," says Plutarch, "peeping into a hut where a company of Shepherds were regaling themselves with a joint of mutton; "Lord," said he, "what a clamour would these men have raised, if they had caught me at such a banquet !" A prowling Wolf one evening put |