308 FABLKS. 



APPLICATION. 



As summer is the season in which the industrious 

 laborious husbandman lays up his supplies for the 

 winter, so youth and manhood are the times of life 

 which 'we should employ in laying in such a stock 

 as may suffice for helpless old age; yet there are 

 many whom we call rational creatures, who squan- 

 der ^away in a profuse prodigality, whatever they 

 get in their younger days, as if the infirmity of 

 age would require no supplies to support it, or at 

 least would find them administered to it in some 

 miraculous way. From this Fable we learn this 

 admirable lesson, never to lose the present oppor- 

 tunity of fairly and honestly providing against 

 the future evils and accidents of life; and while 

 health and the vigour of our faculties remain firm 

 and entire, to lay them out to the best advantage; 

 so that when age and infirmities despoil us of our 

 strength and abilities, we may not have to bewail 

 that we have neglected to provide for the wants 

 of our latter days: for it should always be remem- 

 bered, that "a youth of revels breeds an age of 

 care," and that temperance in youth lays the 

 foundation of health and comfort for old age. 





