276 FAHLES. 



of reason is always disregarded. This unnatural 

 resolution was kept as long" as any thing of that 

 kind can be kept, which was, until each of the 

 rebel members pined away to the skin and bone, 

 and could hold out no longer. Then they found there 

 was no doing without the Belly, and, that idle and 

 insatiable as it seemed, it contributed as much to 

 the welfare of all the other parts, as they in their 

 several stations did towards its maintenance. 



APPLICATION. 



THIS Fable was spoken by Alenenius Agrippa, a 

 Roman consul and general, when he was deputed 

 by the senate to appease a dangerous tumult and 

 insurrection of the people. The many wars the 

 Romans were engaged in, and the frequent sup- 

 plies they were obliged to raise, had so soured and 

 inflamed the minds of the populace, that they were 

 resolved to endure it no longer, and obstinately 

 refused to pay the taxes. It is easy to discern how 

 the great man applied this Fable: for, if the 

 branches and members of a community refuse the 

 government that aid which its necessities require, 

 the whole must perish together. The rulers of a 

 state, useless or frivolous as they may sometimes 

 seem, are yet as necessary to be kept up and main- 

 tained in a proper and decent grandeur, as the 

 family of each private person is, in a condition suit- 

 able to itself. Every man's enjoyment of that little 

 which he gains by his daily labour, depends upon 

 the government's being maintained in a condition 

 to defend and secure him in the unmolested control 

 and possession of it. 



