too great a fondness for pleasure, which
always make us forgetful of what we ought carefully to attend to.

[Illustration]

THE BIRDS, THE THORN-BUSHES,

AND THE SHEEP.

[Illustration]

Mr. Stanhope and his son Gregory were one evening, in the month of May,
sitting at the foot of a delightful hill, and surveying the beautiful
works of nature that surrounded them. The declining sun, now sinking
into the west, seemed to clothe every thing with a purple robe. The
cheerful song of a shepherd called off their attention from their
meditations on those delightful prospects. This shepherd was driving
home his flocks from the adjacent fields.

Thorn-bushes grew on each side of the road, and every sheep that
approached the thorns was sure to be robbed of some part of its wool,
which a good deal displeased little Gregory. "Only see, papa," said he,
"how the sheep are deprived of their wool by those bushes! You have
often told me, that God makes nothing in vain; but these briars seem
only made for mischief; people should therefore join to destroy them
root and branch. Were the poor sheep to come often this way, they would
be robbed of all their clothing. But that shall not be the case, for I
will rise with the sun to-morrow morning, and with my little bill-hook
and snip-snap, I will level all these briars with the ground. You may
come with me, papa, if you please, and bring with you an axe. Before
breakfast, we shall be able to destroy them all."

Mr. Stanhope replied, "We must not go about this business in too great a
hurry, but take a little time to consider of it; perhaps, there may not
be so much cause for being angry with these bushes, as you at present
seem to imagine. Have you not seen the shepherds about Lammas, with
great shears in their hands, take from the trembling sheep all their
wool, not being contented with a few locks only."

Gregory allowed that was true; but they did it in order to make clothes,
whereas the hedges robbed the sheep without having the least occasion
for their wool, and evidently for no useful purpose. "If it be usual,"
said he, "for sheep to lose their clothing at a certain time of the
year, then it is much better to take it for our own advantage, than to
suffer the hedges to pull it off for no end whatever."

Mr. Stanhope allowed the arguments of little Gregory to be just; for
Nature has given to every beast a clothing, and we are obliged from them
to borrow our own, otherwise w