2l8 FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



THERE are some minds so depraved, and entirely 

 abandoned to wickedness, so dead to all virtuous 

 feelings, that the tenderness and humanity of 

 others, though exerted in their own favour, not only 

 fail to make a proper impression of gratitude upon 

 them, but are not able to restrain them from repay- 

 ing benevolence with injuries. Moralists, in all 

 ages, have incessantly declaimed against the enor- 

 mity of this crime, concluding that they who are 

 capable of injuring their benefactors, are not fit to 

 live in a community; being such as the natural ties 

 of parent, friend, or country are too weak to re- 

 strain within the bounds of society. Indeed, the 

 sin of ingratitude is so detestable, that none but 

 the basest tempers can be guilty of it. Men of low 

 grovelling minds, who have been rescued from in- 

 digence by the hand of benevolence, or of charity, 

 forget their benefactors, as well as their original 

 wretchedness ; and as soon as prosperity flows 

 upon them, it too often serves only to rekindle their 

 native rancour and venom, and they hiss and 

 brandish their tongues against those who are so 

 inadvertent or unfortunate as to have served them. 

 But prudent people nee^i not to be admonished on 

 this subject; for they know how much it behoves 

 them to beware of taking a snake into their bosom. 



