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If thou art Solomon, replied the old man, how canst thou ask? In my youth, thou sentest me to the ant: I considered her ways, I learned from her to be diligent and to hoard. What I then learned, I still practise.

Thou hast learned thy lesson but half, returned the Spirit. Go to the ant again! And now learn from her, also, to rest in the winter of thy days, and to enjoy what thou hast gathered!

THE POSSESSOR OF THE BOW.

A man had an excellent bow of ebony, with which he shot very far and very sure, and which he valued at a great price. But once, after considering it attentively, he said: "A little too rude still! Your only ornament is your polish. It is a pity! However, that can be remedied," thought he. "I will go and let a first-rate artist carve something on the bow." He went, and the artist carved an entire huntingscene upon the bow. And what more fitting for a bow than a hunting-scene?

The man was delighted. You deserve this embellishment, my beloved bow." So saying he wished to try it. He drew the string. The bow broke!

THE AGED WOLF.*

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Foulness and corruption were destroying the proud fabric of a war-horse which had been shot beneath its brave rider. Ever-active Nature always employs the ruins of one creation for the life of another. And so there flew forth a swarm of young wasps from the fly-blown carrion. Ah! cried the wasps, what a divine origin is ours! The most superb horse, the favorite of Neptune, is our progenitor.

The attentive fabulist heard the strange boast, and thought of the modern Italians, who conceive themselves to be nothing less than the descendants of the ancient, immortal Romans, because they were born among their graves.

Juno. She was recognized, and quickly the peacocks fell upon her with sharp bills, to pluck from her the lying bravery.

THE PEACOCKS AND TIE CROW. The mischievous wolf had begun to A vain crow adorned herself with the decline in years, and conceived the concil- feathers of the richly-tinted peacocks, iating resolution of living on a good foot- which they had shed, and when she ing with the shepherds. Accordingly, he thought herself sufficiently tricked out, took up his march and came to the shep-mixed boldly with these splendid birds of herd whose folds were nearest to his den. Shepherds! said he, you call me a bloodthirsty robber, which I really am not. To be sure, I must hold by your sheep, when I am hungry; for hunger hurts. Protect me from hunger; only give me enough to eat, and you shall be very well satisfied with me; for really, I am the tamest and most gentle of creatures, when I have had enough to eat.

When you have had enough? Very likely; replied the shepherd. But when will that be? You and avarice never have enough. Go your ways!

MEROPS.

I want to ask you something, said a young cagle to a contemplative and pro

*From The History of the Aged Wolf," in seven fables.-The first fable.

Cease now! she cried at length, you have your own again! But the peacocks, who had observed some of the crow's own shining wing-feathers, replied: Be still, miserable fool! these too cannot be yours! And they continued to peck.

LESSING'S EPIGRAMS.

A NICE POINT.

Say which enjoys the greater blisses,
John, who Dorinda's picture kisses,
Or Tom, his friend, the favor'd elf,
Who kisses fair Dorinda's self?

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TO A SLOW WALKER AND QUICK EATER. So slowly you walk, and so quickly you eat, You should march with your mouth, and devour with your feet.

ON TWO BEAUTIFUL ONE-EYED SISTERS.

Give up one eye, and make your sister's two, Venus she then would be, and Cupid you.

CUPID AND MERCURY, OR THE BARGAIN. Sly Cupid late with Maia's son

Agreed to live as friend and brother; In proof, his bow and shafts the one Chang'd for the well-fill'd purse of ť other.

And now, the transfer duly made,

Together through the world they rove; The thieving god in arms array'd, And gold the panoply of love!

FRITZ.

Quoth gallant Fritz, "I ran away
To fight again another day."
The meaning of his speech is plain,
He only fled to fly again.

THE PER-CONTRA, OR MATRIMONIAL BALANCE.

How strange, a deaf wife to prefer! True, but she's also dumb, good sir.

CHEATING OLD DEATII.
Yesterday, O brothers mine,
As I quaffed the purple wine,
(Fancy what a fearful doom!)
Death came to me in my room.

Threatening his scythe he swung,
Menacing his accents rung;

"Slave of Bacchus, hence! away!
Thou hast drunk enough, away!"

"Dearest Death," said I, in tears,
"Wouldst thou then abridge my years?
See, here is some wine for thee!
Death, my friend, O pity me!”

With a smile he seized the draught,
To his cousin Plague he quaffed,
To his health he drank it up,
Smiling then replaced the cup.

Pleased that I should now be free,
He renewed his threats to me!
"Fool! dost think that I'll resign
Thee for one small glass of wine?"

"Death," cried I, "we'll make a pact,
Let me as physician act!
Leave me, and this vow be mine,
Half my patients shall be thine."

"Good, if that's the case," cried he,
"Live, but faithful be to me!
Live, till kisses pall thy soul,
And thou'rt weary of the bowl!"

"O, these words of priceless worth! Death, thou giv'st me second birth, In this glass of wine with thee, Death, I drink fraternity."

Thus I e'er must live, divine!
Ever! by the god of wine!
Wine and love shall be my choice,
I'll with love and wine rejoice!

Translated by A. Baskerville.

THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE.

I sought, while drinking, to unfold
Why Nature's kingdoms are threefold.
Both man and beast, they drink and love,
As each is gifted from above;
The dolphin, eagle, dog, and flea,
In that they love and drink, agree.
In all that drink and love then, we
The first of these three kingdoms see.

The plants the second kingdom are,
But lower in creation far;

They do not love, but yet they drink,
When dripping clouds upon them sink;
Thus drinks the clover, thus the pine,
The aloe tree, and branching vine.
In all that drink, but love not, we
The second of these kingdoms see.

The stony kingdom is the last,
Here diamonds with sand are classed;
No stone feels thirst, or soft desires,
No love, no draught its bosom fires,
In all that drink not, love not, we
The last of these three kingdoms see.
For without love, or wine, now own!
What wouldst thou be, O man?-A stone.
Translated by A. Baskerville.

GEORGIA THEATRICS.

If my memory fail me not, the 10th of June, 1809, found me, at about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, ascending a long and gentle slope in what was called "The Dark Corner" of Lincoln. I believe it took its name from the moral darkness which VOL. V.-W. H.

reigned over that portion of the country at the time of which I am speaking. If in this point of view it was but a shade darker than the rest of the county, it was inconceivably dark. If any man can name a trick or sin which had not been committed at the time of which I am speaking, in the very focus of the county's illumination (Lincolnton), he must himself be the most inventive of the tricky, and the very Judas of sinners. Since that time, however (all humor aside), Lincoln has become a living proof that light shineth in darkness." Could I venture to mingle the solemn with the ludicrous, even for the purposes of honorable contrast, I could adduce from this county instances of the most numerous and wonderful transitions, from vice and folly to virtue and holiness, which have ever, perhaps, been witnessed since the days of the apostolic ministry. So much, lest it should be thought by some that what I am about to relate is characteristic of the county in which it occurred.

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Whatever may be said of the moral condition of the Dark Corner at the time just mentioned, its natural condition was anything but dark. It smiled in all the charms of spring; and spring borrowed a new charm from its undulating grounds, its luxuriant woodlands, its sportive streams, its vocal birds, and its blushing flowers.

Rapt with the enchantment of the season and the scenery around me, I was slowly rising the slope, when I was startled by loud, profane, and boisterous voices, which seemed to proceed from a thick covert of undergrowth about two hundred yards in the advance of me, and about one hundred to the right of my road.

You kin, kin you?"

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when he saw the elephant. Now let him

come.

Thus they went on, with countless oaths interspersed, which I dare not even hint at, and with much that I could not distinctly hear.

In mercy's name, thought I, what band of ruffians has selected this holy season and this heavenly retreat for such Pandæmonian riots! I quickened my gait, and had come nearly opposite to the thick grove whence the noise proceeded, when my eye caught indistinctly and at intervals, through the foliage of the dwarf-oaks and hickories which intervened, glimpses of a man or men, who seemed to be in a violent struggle; and I could occasionally catch those deep-drawn emphatic oaths which men in conflict utter when they deal blows. I dismounted, and hurried to the spot with all speed. I had overcome about half the space which separated it from me, when I saw the combatants come to the ground, and after a short struggle, I saw the uppermost one (for I could not see the other) make a heavy plunge with both his thumbs, and at the same instant I heard a cry in the accent of keenest torture, "Enough! my eye's out!"

I was so completely horror-struck that I stood transfixed for a moment to the spot where the cry met me. The accomplices in the hellish deed which had been perpetrated had all fled at my approach; at least I supposed so, for they were not to be seen.

"Now, blast your corn-shucking soul," said the victor (a youth about eighteen years old) as he rose from the ground, come cutt'n your shines 'bout me agin, next time I come to the court-house, will you! Get your owl-eye in agin if you kin!"

At this moment he saw me for the first time. He looked excessively embarrassed, and was moving off, when I called to him, in a tone emboldened by the sacredness of my office and the iniquity of his crime. "Come back, you brute! and assist me in relieving your fellow-mortal, whom you have ruined forever!"

My rudeness subdued his embarrassment in an instant; and, with a taunting curl of the nose, he replied, "You needn't kick before you're spurred. There ain't nobody there, nor hain't been nother. I was jist seein' how I could 'a' fout." So

saying, he bounded to his plough, which stood in the corner of the fence about fifty yards beyond the battle-ground.

And would you believe it, gentle reader! his report was true. All that I had heard and seen was nothing more nor less than a Lincoln rehearsal; in which the youth who had just left me had played all the parts of all the characters in a court-house fight.

I went to the ground from which he had risen, and there were the prints of his two thumbs, plunged up to the balls in the mellow earth, about the distance of a man's eyes apart; and the ground around was broken up as if two stags had been engaged upon it.

A. B. LONGSTREET.

GARDEN THEATRICALS. Man is an imitative animal, and consequently the distinguished success which has fallen to the lot of a few of our countrymen in the threatrical profession has had a great effect in creating longings for histrionic honors. Of late years débuts have been innumerable, and it would be a more difficult task than that prescribed by Orozembo-"to count the leaves of yonder forest"-if any curious investigator, arguing from known to unknown quantities, were to undertake the computation of the number of Roscii who have not as yet been able to effect their coup d'essai In this quiet city-many as she has already given to the boards-multitudes are yet to be found, burning with ardor to

walk the plank," who, in their prospective dreams, nightly hear the timbers vocal with their mighty tread, and snuff the breath of immortality in the imaginary dust which answers to the shock. The recesses of the town could furnish forth hosts of youths who never thrust the left hand into a Sunday boot, preparatory to giving it the last polish, without jerking up the leg thereof with a Keanlike scowl, and sighing to think that it is not the well-buffed gauntlet of crook'd Richard-lads, who never don their night gear for repose, without striding thus attired across their narrow dormitory, and for the nonce, believing themselves accoutred to "go on" for Rolla, or the Pythagorean of Syracuse-two gentlemen who promenade in "cutty sarks," and are

as indifferent about rheumatism as a Cupid horsed upon a cloud.

But in the times of which we speak, stage-struck heroes were rare. The theatrical mania was by no means prevalent. It went and came like the influenza, sometime carrying off its victims; but they were not multitudinous. Our actors were chiefly importations. The day of native talent was yet in the gray of its morning a few streakings or so, among the Tressels and Tyrells, but nothing tiptopping it in the zenith. There are, however, few generalities without an exception, and in those days Theodosius Spoon had the honor to prove the rule by being an instance to the contrary.

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denomination--is a mere dipsey, and must keep a man at the bottom. Coming to the application of the theory, they were satisfied that the homely though useful qualities of the spoon would be swallowed up in the superior attributes of Theodosius. That this worthy pair were right in the abstract is a self-evident proposition. Who, for instance, can meet with a Napoleon Bonaparte Mugg, without feeling that when the said Mugg is emptied of its spirit, a soul will have exhaled, which, had the gate of circumstance opened the way, would have played foot-ball with monarchs, and have wiped its brogues upon empires? An Archimedes Pipps is clearly born to be a "screw, and Theodosius Spoon, called by the wag- to operate extensively with burning gish Teaspoon, and supposed by his ad- glasses," if not upon the fleets of a Marmirers to be born for a stirring fellow-cellus, at least upon his own body corpoone who would whirl round until he secured for himself a large share of the sugar of existence - Theodosius Spoon was named after a Roman emperor not by traditional nomenclature, which modifies the effect of the thing, but directly "out of a history book," abridged by Goldsmith. It having been ascertained, in the first place, that the aforesaid potentate, with the exception of having massacred a few thousand innocent people one day, was a tolerably decent fellow for a Roman emperor, he was therefore complimented by having his name bestowed upon a Spoon. It must not, however, be thought that the sponsors were so sanguine as to entertain a hope that their youthful charge would ever reach the purple. Their aspirations did not extend so far; but being moderate in their expectations, they acted on the sound and well-established principle, that as fine feathers make fine birds, fine names, to a certain extent, must have an analogous effect-that our genius should be educed, as it were, by the appellation bestowed upon us; and that we should be so sagaciously designated that to whatever height fortune leads, fame, in speaking of us, may have a comfortable mouthful, and we have no cause under any circumstances to blush for our name. Mr. and Mrs. Spoon -wise people in their way-reasoned in the manner referred to. They were satisfied that a sonorous handle to one's patronymic acts like a balloon to its owner, and that an emaciated, every-day, threadbare cognomen—a Tom, Dick and Harry

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rate. While Franklin Pipps, if in the mercantile line, is pretty sure to be a great flier of kites, and a speculator in vapors, and such like fancy stocks. If the Slin kums call their boy Cæsar, it follows as a natural consequence that the puggish disposition of the family nose will, in his case, gracefully curve into the aquiline, and that the family propensity for the Fabian method of getting out of a scrape, will be Cæsarized into a valor, which at its very aspect would set 'all Gaul" into a quake. Who can keep little Diogenes Doubikens out of a tub, or prevent him from scrambling into a hogshead, especially if sugar is to be gathered in the interior? Even Chesterfield Gruff is half disposed to be civil, if he thinks he can gain by so unnatural a course of proceeding; and everybody is aware that Crichton Dunderpate could do almost anything, if he knew how, and if, by a singular fatality, all his fingers were not thumbs.

Concurrent testimony goes to prove that the son of a great man is of necessity likewise great-the children of a blanchisseuse, or of a house-scrubber, have invariably clean hands and faces; schoolmasters are very careful to imbue their offspring with learning; and, if we are not mistaken, it has passed into a proverb that the male progeny of a clergyman, in general, labor hard for the proud distinction of being called "hopeful youths and promising youngsters. The corollary, therefore, flows from this, as smoothly as water from a hydrant, that he who bor

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