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A Cormorant, whofe eyes were become fo dim by age, that he could not difcern his prey at the bottom of the waters, bethought himself of a ftratagem to fupply his wants. Hark you, friend, faid he to a Gudgeon, whom he obferved fwimming near the furface of a certain canal, if you have any regard for yourself, or your brethren, go this moment and acquaint them from me, that the owner of this piece of water is determined to drag it a week hence. The Gudgeon immediately fwam away, and made his report of this terrible news to a general affembly of the fishes, who unanimoufly agreed to fend him back as their ambassador to the Cormorant. The purport of his commiffion was to return him their thanks for the intelligence; and to add their entreaties, that as he had been fo good as to inform them of their danger, he would be graciously pleased to put them into a method of efcaping it. That I will moft readily, returned the artful Cormorant, and affift you with my best fervices into the bargain. You have only to collect yourselves together at the top of the water, and I will undertake to tranfport you one by one to my own refidence, by the fide of a folitary pool, to which no creature but myself ever found the way. The project was perfectly approved by the unwary fifhes, and with great expedition performed by the deceitful Cormorant; who having placed them in a fhallow water, the bottom of which his eye could eafily difcern, they were all devoured by him in their turns, as his hunger or luxury required.

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Twas the fool who faid in his heart, There is

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no God: into the breaft of a wife man fuch a thought could never have entered. One of thofe refined reafoners, commonly called Minute Philofophers, was fitting at his eafe beneath the fhade of a large oak, while at his fide the weak branches of a pompion trailed upon the ground. This threw our great logician into his old track of reafoning against Providence. Is it confiftent with common fenfe, faid he, that infinite wisdom fhould create a large and ftately tree, with branches of prodigious ftrength, only to bear fo fmall and infignificant a fruit as an Acorn? Or that fo weak a ftem, as that of a pompion, fhould be loaded with fo difproportionate a weight? A child may fee the abfurdity of it. In the midft of this cu rious fpeculation, down dropt an Acorn, from

one of the highest branches of the Oak, full upon his head. How fmall a trifle may overturn the fyftems of mighty philofophers! Struck with the accident he could not help crying out, How providential it is that this was not a pompion!

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The Lynx and the Mole.

UNDER the covert of a thick wood, at the foot of a tree, as a Lynx lay whetting his teeth, and waiting for his prey, he efpied a Mole, half buried under a hillock of her own raifing. Alas, poor creature, faid the Lynx, how much I pity thee! Surely Jupiter has been very unkind, to debar thee from the light of the day, which rejoices the whole creation. Thou art certainly not above half alive and it would be doing thee a fervice to put an end to fo inanimate a being. I thank you for your kindnefs, replied the Mole, but I think I have full

as much vivacity as my ftate and circumftances require. For the reft, I am perfectly well contented with the faculties which Jupiter has allotted me, who I am fure wants not our direction in diftributing his gifts with propriety. I have not, it is true, your piercing eyes; but I have ears which anfwer all my purpofes equally as well. Hark! for example, I am warned, by a noife which I hear behind you, to fly from danger. So faying, he flunk into the earth; while a javelin from the arm of a hunter pierced the quick-fighted Lynx to the heart.

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The Spider and the Silk-worm.

HOW vainly we promife ourselves, that our flimfy productions will be rewarded with immortali honour! A fpider, bufied in fpreading his web from one fide of a room to the other, was afkedo

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by an industrious Silk-worm, to what end he spent fo much time and labour in making fuch a number of lines and circles? The Spider angrily replied, Do not disturb me, thou ignorant thing: I tranfmit my ingenuity to pofterity, and fame is the object of my wishes. Juft as he had spoken, a chambermaid, coming into the room to feed her Silk-worms, faw the Spider at his work, and with one ftroke of her broom, fwept him away, and deftroyed at once his labours, and his hopes of fame.

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A BEE obferving a Fly frifking about her hive, afked him, in a very paffionate tone, what he did there? Is it for fuch fcoundrels as you, fhe, to intrude into the company of the queens of the air? You have great reafon, truly, replied the Fly, to be out of humour: I am fure they must be mad, who would have any concern with

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