A MAN, that was bitten by a Dog, was advised, as the best remedy in the world, to dip a piece of bread in the blood of the wound, and give it to the Dog to eat. Pray, hold your hand a little," says the Man, "unless have a mind to draw all the Dogs in the town upon for that will certainly be the end of it, when they shall find themselves rewarded, instead of punished, for such an act."

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me;

REFLECTION.

This fable informs us, that wicked and ill-natured men are not to be obliged by kindnesses, especially when they find they may be the better for insolence; for at that rate, he that rewards past offences, draws on and Under the rule and correction encourages new ones.

of this allegory, we may reckon calumny, slander, and detraction, in any form of figure whatsoever, and all manner of affronts and indignities, upon our good names or our persons. There may be place in all these cases for a generous charity to forgive offences, even of the highest ingratitude and malice; but it is not advisable to reward where men have the tenderness not to punish. This way of proceeding is dangerous in all the affairs of human life, public as well as private: for it is a temptation to villainy, when a man fares the better for evildoing. Ill-nature, in fine, is not to be cured with a reward; but on the contrary, quarrelsome men, as well as quarrelsome curs, are worse for fair usage.

THE BEES AND THE WASPS.

SOME honey-combs being claimed by a swarm of Wasps, the right owners protested against their demand, and the cause was referred to a Hornet. Witnesses being examined, they deposed that certain winged creatures, who had a loud hum, of a yellowish colour, and somewhat like Bees, were observed a considerable time hovering about the place where this nest was found. But this did not sufficiently decide the question; for these characteristics, the Hornet observed, agreed no less with the Bees than the Wasps. At length a sensible old Bee offered to put the matter upon this decisive issue: "Let a place be appointed by the court," said he, "for the plaintiffs and defendants to work in: it will then soon appear which of us are capable of forming such regular cells, and afterwards of filling them with so

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delicious a fluid." The Wasps, refusing to agree to this proposal, sufficiently convinced the judge on which side the right lay; and he decreed the honey-combs accordingly.

Pretenders of every kind are best detected by appealing to their works.

Two Bears, climbing over a fence into a place where Bees were kept, began to plunder the Hives, and rob them of their honey. But the Bees, to revenge the injury, attacked them in a whole swarm together; and though they were not able to pierce their rugged hides, yet, with their little stings, they so annoyed their eyes and nostrils, that, unable to endure the smarting pain, with impatience they tore the skin over their ears with their own claws, and suffered ample punishment for the injury they did the Bees, in breaking open their waxen cells.

REFLECTION.

Many and great are the injuries of which some men are guilty towards others, for the sake of gratifying some