FABLES. 



I2Q 



THE ENVIOUS MAN AND THE COVETOUS. 



Ax Envious Man happened to be offering up his 

 prayers to Jupiter, at the same time and in the 

 same place with a covetous miserable Fellow. 

 Jupiter sent Apollo to examine the merits of their 

 petitions, and to give them such relief as he should 

 think proper. Apollo therefore opened his com- 

 mission, and told them, that to make short of the 

 matter, whatever the one asked, the other should 

 have doubled. Upon this, the Covetous Man, who 

 had a thousand things to request, forebore to ask 

 first, hoping to receive a double quantity; for he 

 concluded that all men's wishes sympathized with 

 his own. By this means, the Envious Man had the 

 opportunity of giving vent to his malignity, and of 

 preferring his petition first, which was what he 

 aimed at; so without hesitation he prayed to have 



VOL. iv. s 



