158 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



THERE is no maxim which deserves more fre- 

 quent repetition, and if the heart be capable of 

 amendment by precept and admonition, no virtue 

 should be more strongly enforced and recommended 

 than gratitude. Where sentiments of this kind are 

 wanting, our natures soon become debased, and our 

 minds depraved. Ingratitude has ever been justly 

 branded as the blackest of crimes, and, as it were, 

 comprehending all other vices within it. Nor can 

 we say that this opinion is too severe : for if a man 

 be capable of injuring his benefactor, what will he 

 scruple doing towards another ? We may fairly 

 conclude that he who is guilty of ingratitude, will 

 not hesitate at any other crime of an inferior 

 nature. Since there are no human laws to punish 

 this infamous prevailing vice, it would only be 

 doing an act of justice, and supplying the w r ant, to 

 point out criminals of this description to the repro- 

 bation of mankind, that men of worth might avoid 

 all intercourse and communication with them. 

 The ingrate should also bear in mind, that he strips 

 himself of the protection which might have been 

 afforded by his friends, and exposes himself to the 

 shafts of his enemies, who will not fail to take 

 advantage of the defenceless state to which his 

 folly and depravity have reduced him. 



