374 FABLES. 



mischievous weapon. There is a little incendiary 

 called the tongue, which is more venomous than 

 a poisoned arrow, and more killing than a two- 

 edged sword. The moral of the Fable therefore 

 is this, that if in any civil insurrection, the persons 

 taken in arms against the government deserve to 

 die, much more do they whose devilish tongues 

 or pens gave birth to the sedition, and excited 

 the tumult. The liable is also equally applicable 

 to those evil counsellors, who excite corrupt or 

 wicked governments to sap and undermine, and 

 then to overturn the just laws and liberties of a 

 whole people; or involve them in cruel offensive 

 wars, in \vhich they cause thousands upon thou- 

 sands of swords to be drawn, and whole armies 

 of men to be cut in pieces, while they themselves 

 coolly sit out of danger, and calculate the gains 

 they derive from the wide-spreading desolation. 

 AVar is the most horrid custom that ever resulted 

 from human wickedness, and is caused only by 

 the ignorance of the psople, or the wickedness of 

 governments. 



