230 



FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



To insult people in distress, is the characteristic 

 of a cruel, indiscreet, and giddy temper; and he 

 must surely have a very bad heart, and no very 

 good head, who can look on the day of grief, and 

 the hour of distress, as a time for impertinent rail- 

 lery. If any other arguments were necessary, or 

 might be supposed capable of enforcing moral pre- 

 cepts on those who cannot be actuated by humanity, 

 it might be added, that the vicissitudes of human 

 affairs render such behaviour imprudent, as well as 

 barbarous; since we cannot tell how soon we may 

 be ourselves reduced to lament the woes which are 

 now the objects of our derision: for nobody knows 

 whose turn may be the next. 



