er folks we faults can spy,
And blame the mote that dims their eye;
Each little speck and blemish find:
To our own stronger errors blind.

FABLE LXII.

THE DOG AND THE WOLF.

A LEAN, hungry, half-starved Wolf happened, one moonshiny night,
to meet a jolly, plump, well-fed Mastiff; and after the first
compliments were passed, says the Wolf, "You look extremely well;
I protest, I think I never saw a more graceful, comely person;
but how comes it about, I beseech you, that you should live so
much better than I? I may say, without vanity, that I venture
fifty times more than you do, and yet I am almost ready to perish
with hunger." The Dog answered very bluntly, "Why, you may live
as well, if you do the same for it as I do." "Indeed! what is
that?" says he. "Why," says the Dog, "only to guard the house at
night, and keep it from thieves." "With all my heart," replies
the Wolf, "for at present I have but a sorry time of it; and I
think to change my hard lodging in the woods, where I endure
rain, frost, and snow, for a warm roof over my head and enough of
good victuals, will be no bad bargain." "True," says the Dog;
"therefore you have nothing to do but to follow me."

[Illustration: THE HOUSE DOG AND THE WOLF.]

Now, as they were jogging on together, the Wolf spied a crease
in the Dog's neck, and having a strange curiosity, could not
forbear asking him what it meant! "Pugh! nothing," says the Dog.
"Nay, but pray," says the Wolf. "Why," says the Dog, "if you must
know, I am tied up in the day-time, because I am a little fierce,
for fear I should bite people, and am only let loose at nights.
But this is done with a design to make me sleep by day, more than
anything else, and that I may watch the better in the night time;
for, as soon as ever the twilight appears, out I am turned, and
may go where I please. Then my master brings me plates of bones
from the table with his own hands; and whatever scraps are left
by any of the family, all fall to my share; for, you must know, I
am a favourite with everybody. So you see how you are to
live.--Come, come along; what is the matter with you?" "No,"
replied the Wolf, "I beg your pardon; keep your happiness all to
yourself. Liberty is the word with me; and I would not be a king
upon the terms you mention."

MORAL.

The lowest condition of life, with freedom, is happier than the
greatest without it. The bird of the air, though he roosts on a
bough, has m