FABLES. 



337 



THE RAVEN AND THE SERPENT. 



A Raven in quest of food, seeing a Serpent 

 basking- in the sun, soused down, seized it with 

 his horny beak, and attempted to carry it off. 

 But the Sepent, writhing with the pain, twisted 

 its elastic coils so firmly about the Raven, and bit 

 him with such envenomed fierceness, that he fell 

 to the ground mortally wounded. In the agonies 

 of death, the Raven confessed this was a just 

 punishment upon him, for having attempted to 

 satisfy his greedy appetite at the expence of 

 another's welfare. 



APPLICATION. 



WHEN men suffer their passions to set aside 

 their reason, they soon become sensual in their 

 appetites, and inordinate in their desires. Moral 



VOL. IV. 2 X 



