2 bo FABLES. 



APPLICATION. 



MEN of honour are careful not to tarnish their 

 reputations by falsifying their word, and always 

 consider well how far it may be in their power to 

 fulfil their promises before they make them. They 

 always strive to walk on the straight line of recti- 

 tude; and should they, in an unguarded moment, 

 happen to stagger from it, they instantly retrace 

 their steps, and feel unhappy until they have re- 

 gained their station. There is a simplicity in truth 

 and virtue, which requires no artifices, and never 

 leads us into difficulties, but points out the plain 

 and safe way. Deceit and cunning, on the con- 

 trary, involve those who practise them in a maze, 

 and they are bewildered in their own falsehoods, 

 from which no dexterity can extricate them. The 

 brain-racking schemes which villains practise to 

 delude others, are commonly detected, and end in 

 the unpitied punishment of themselves; for they 

 seldom discover the folly of being wicked, until it 

 has betrayed them into their ruin. But such per- 

 sons would do well to refresh their memories with 

 the old adage which says, that " all knaves are 

 fools, but all fools are not knaves." 



