34 FABLES. 



only committed a few crimes ; and why he did not 

 rather take vengeance on the Wolf, who was an 

 open and declared enemy ? Nay, replied the Shep- 

 herd, it is for that very reason that I think you ten 

 times more worthy of death ; for from him I expect- 

 ed nothing but hostilities, and therefore could guard 

 against him ; you I depended on as a just and 

 faithful servant, and fed and encouraged you ac- 

 cordingly, and therefore your treachery is the more 

 base, and your ingratitude the more unpardonable. 



APPLICATION. 



THE common disappointments which we are 

 liable to through life, do not bring \vith them any 

 thing to be compared to the bitterness we experi- 

 ence from the perfidy of those we esteemed and 

 trusted as friends: an open enemy we can guard 

 against, and we look upon him when he is at rest, 

 as we do at a sword within its scabbard; but the 

 man who betrays his trust, masked under the ap- 

 pearance of friendship, wounds us in the tenderest 

 part, and involves us in a cruelly complicated 

 grief, which frets the mind, and heightens the sum 

 of our infelicity. Friendship is the cordial of 

 human life, the balm of society; and he who vio- 

 lates its laws by treachery and deceit, converts it 

 into the deadliest poison, and renders that which 

 ought to be the defence and support of our steps,, 

 our greatest snare and danger. 



