om bad men rarely know,
This apologue may serve to show:

A stag upon a fountain's side,
Beheld his branching horns with pride;
While of his spindle-shanks asham'd,
Their disproportioned form he blam'd.
Sudden he hears the hunter's cries,
And to the forest nimbly flies.
The woods receive their well-known guest.
His tangled horns, his feet arrest;
The hounds approach, and seize their prey;
Who, dying, thus was heard to say:
"Wretch that I am! too late I learn,
How little we the truth discern!
What would have saved me, I despis'd,
And what has been my ruin, priz'd!"

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

THE EAGLE, THE CAT, AND THE
SOW.

Her nest on high an eagle made
Lower a cat her kittens laid;
And at the bottom of the tree
A sow dispos'd her progeny.
Vile puss to gain her wicked ends,
Much love for both of them pretends.
First to the eagle's aerie mounts,
And thus to her false alarms recounts:
"Madam, in truth our dangerous state,
'Tis with reluctance I relate;
But things are really gone so far,
Conceal them I no longer dare.
Night after night the treacherous sow
Our tree has undermined below;
Ere long it cannot choose but fall,
And then she hopes to eat us all."
Successful when she saw her lies,
Down to the bristly sow she hies;
"My worthy neighbor!" crying out,
"I pray you, mind what you're about,
For to a certainty I know,
The eagle waits but till you go,
(The thing with great concern I say,)
To make your little ones her prey."
Suspicious dread when thus inspir'd,
Puss to her hole all day retir'd;
Stealing at night on silent paw,
To stuff her own and kittens' maw.
To stir nor sow nor eagle dare.
What more? fell hunger ends their care;
And long the mischief-making beast
With her base brood on carrion feast.

Learn hence, ye simples, ere too late,
What ills the double-tongued create.

[Illustration]

THE EAGLE, THE RAVEN AND
THE TORTOISE.

Who in their foe united find
Force, art, and a remorseless mind,
Whate'er their strength and prowess be,
To perish stand in jeopardy.

An eagle once a tortoise held,
Safe in his horny house concealed,
Which he in vain essayed to break
With all the fury of his beak.
As with his prey he wing'd the air,
A wily raven ventur'd near:
"Your prize is excellent," says she,
"And if you'll give a share to me,
I know, for all his iron hide,
How we the dainty may divide."
The bargain made, "On yonder wall,
Down," says the raven, "let him fa