FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



WE had better be contented to keep our exploits 

 to ourselves, than to appear ridiculous by attempt- 

 ing 1 to force a belief of that which is improbable; 

 and travelled gentlemen should have a care how 

 they import falsehoods and inventions of their own 

 from foreign parts, and attempt to vend them at 

 home for staple truths. It cannot be too strongly 

 impressed upon the mind, that a lie is upon all 

 occasions degrading to the person who utters it, 

 and should be most scrupulously avoided, not only 

 on account of its baseness, but because it is impos- 

 sible to foresee in how many troubles it may 

 involve him who passes it off. It will not always 

 receive credit, and is ever liable to detection. 

 When it is calculated for wicked purposes, it will 

 deservedly incur punishment; and when it is of a 

 harmless or insignificant nature, it will even then 

 often expose its author to contempt and ridicule; 

 and vanity never mistakes its end more grossly, 

 than when it attempts to aggrandize itself at the 

 expense of truth. 



