WISE COUNSEL. 241 



Under these repeated visitations, they consulted with the 

 old sage who had been the first to counsel active operations 

 against their new enemy. " What now," said they, " are the 

 best measures to be adopted for our safety ?" 



" Ah, my children!^ said he; " safety there is now none. 

 Bemernber the time you wasted in panic fear and indecision, 

 before you attempted to attack these monsters in their pitfalls, 

 or meet them upon level ground. The ogres and our winged 

 destroyers are the same evil genii under different forms. The 

 first were shapes of immaturity : their bodies were unwieldy, 

 their movements slow and awkward -, with the cunning of age, 

 they had the weakness of infancy, and by dint of activity and 

 courage you might have overcome them. But now, you have 

 allowed them to reach their matured and powerful forms, also 

 to multiply their race, which has become too numerous for 

 entire extirpation, and which, in one shape or another, will 

 continue to assail you. My best and only advice, now, is to 

 resume your usual activities ; hold your new enemies, as well 

 as those which have always beset you, in prudent, but not in 

 paralyzing dread ; attack them when you can, before they 

 have acquired wings to soar beyond your reach ; and do this, 

 looking always for help to that benevolent Power who is the 

 only Good Genius of our diminutive race, as well as of the 

 gigantic nations amongst whom we dwell." 



