Syc] AND SYMBOLS. 341 



Suspicion sometimes the Child of Self-Knowledge. 



The habit of laying traps for other animals by the monkey 

 tribe, makes tham very cautious of being entrapped themselves. 

 No snare, how nicely bated soever, will take the monkey of the 

 West India Islands. The monkey, being full of tricks and cheat- 

 ing himself, supposes every other creature to be so likewise- 

 Very fraudulent men are always the persons who are most 

 supicious of others. The greatest rascals are the greatest 

 suspecters. Like the monkey, they are on the look-out for 

 "traps;" and like him, they often think they see one when 

 there is nothing of the kind. A. 



The Sweet Disposition. 



Most persons are considerably affected by the circumstances 

 which surround them, and their disposition is either soured or 

 sweetened by their influence. But there are some few who are 

 born with a sweet disposition, which seems an indestructible 

 essence. It is not developed by good fortune, or destroyed by 

 adversity. They are like the violet, which as a literal fact all 

 the culture of the world has never been able to improve, and 

 which is as lovely and sweet-scented in the wild bank and in 

 the wood as in the most splendid borders of palace gardens. 



B. F. 



The Sycophant's Ascendancy. 



The stem of the ivy is furnished with root-like suckers 

 which insinuate their spurs into the bark of trees or on the 

 surface of a wall. Who has not seen with regret some noble 

 ash tree covered with ivy, in whose embrace it rapidly yields up 

 its life? Surely the root is draining the tree of its sap and 

 transferring it to its own veins. Thus does a sycophant 

 gradually extend his influence over a patron until the manliness 

 of that patron succumbs to his ascendancy. The hero is ruined, 

 and the flatterer flourishes in his place. Beware of the insinu- 

 ating aptitudes of the parasite ! Let him, like ivy on a wall, 

 keep his proper situation. Protect a noble nature from his 

 advances. v. 



