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likely, on comparing the different accounts, that this animal makes a noise, which other creatures take for a complaint, though probably it is only a sound it commonly sends forth over its prey, as the growling of a cat over a mouse. However that be; crocodile's tears have become a proverb; and a moral of sound prudence may be drawn from the emblem.

Application.

As it is man's greatest praise "to be wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove," so, he who suffers himself to fall into the snares of designing men, will quickly put it out of his own power to be of service to the good and virtuous.

No principle is more noble than that of forgiving injuries-nothing so wicked or unprofitable as a rancorous revenge. Heaven itself commands us to forgive our enemies; but it is the height of folly to trust those who have injured us.

There are some people who, like the crocodile in the emblem, will even seem to lament their foriner injuries, in order to have it in their power to do fresh ones. Of such persons beware! do them no harm, but take care not to put it into their power to do you any.

If you would pass through life with any degree of satisfaction, it is necessary that you be good and prudent. Wisdom is the sister of virtue; join them both in your conduct; and, if it should happen that you do not enjoy all the felicity you might expect, you will at least have the comfort to deserve it.

Progressive,

Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and comforting the afflicted, yield more pleasure than we receive from those actions which respect only ourselves; benevolence may in this view be termed the most refined self-love.

While blessed with health and prosperity, cultivate an humble and compassionate disposition: think of the dis tresses of human life; of the solitary cottage, the dying' parent, and the weeping orphan.

When the ground is covered with snow, and the rivers with ice; when the cold north wind is heard to whistle, and the darkening clouds arise, let those who sit by cheerful firesides, remember the poor, the freezing, and the friendless.

We should never be proud or vain of the advantages we possess; but humbly endeavour to use them for the benefit of our fellow-creatures, and to the glory of that Being from whom we have received them.

He who pretends to great sensibility towards man, and yet has no feeling for the high object of religion, no heart to admire and adore the great Father of the universe, has reason to distrust the truth and delicacy of his sensibility.

Youth is the season for improvement in knowledge, for forming the mind, for gaining such accomplishments as may make us happy and useful. What a golden age is that which affords us such opportunities of laying up hap piness for riper years!

SIN MAKES GOD ANGRY..

How kind in all his works and ways
Must our Creator be!

I learn a lesson of his praise
From every thing I see.

Ten thousand creatures by his hand
Were brought to life at first:

His skill their diff'rent natures plann'd,
And made them from the dust.

He condescends to do them good,
And pities when they cry;
For all their wants are understood
By his attentive eye.

And can so kind a Father frown?
Will he, who stoops to care
For little sparrows falling down,
Despise an infant's prayer?

No; he regards the feeblest cry:
'Tis only when we sin

He puts the smile of mercy by,
And lets his power begin.

'Tis sin that grieves his holy mind,

And makes his anger rise ;
And sinners old or young shall find
No favour in his eyes.

But when the broken spirit burns,
And would from sin depart,

The God of mercy never spurns
The broken, humble heart.

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The Danger of Temptation.

THE silly fish, while playing in the brook,
Hath gorg'd and swallow'd the destructive hook;
In vain he flounces on the quiv'ring hair,

Drawn panting forth to breathe the upper air;
Caught by his folly in the glitt'ring bait,

He meets his ruin, and submits to fate.

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Avoid base bribes: the tempting lure display'd,
If once you seize, you perish self-betray'd.
Be slow to take when strangers haste to give,.
Lest of your ruin you the price receive.

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The simple fish sports on the surface of the clear streams, while the wily angler plies his rod and line; the timid animal often approaches the bait, and as often returns from it; till at last, just as the sun shrouds his radiance behind a clouds he ventures to jump at the

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fictitious fly, swallows it at once, and with it swallows the barbed hook. That moment seals his ruin. Smarting from the wound, he struggles, and endeavours to free himself, but in vain.

The angler giving full play to the line, permits him to run away with it; but his struggle only tends to make his ruin more certain: he is soon tired out, and then, being lifted out of the water, proves an easy prey to his foe. He pants; he expires in agonies; yet owes his destruction to a slender hair: so often do seeming trifles tend to ruin and perdition.

Application.

What a fit emblem is this, of those heedless persons who suffer themselves to be deluded by glittering temptations, or drawn into snares by the artifices of the vicious and designing.

If, for a while, like the fish, they play about the hook, yet, in some unguarded moment, when the light of their reason is obscured, they seize the specious bait, they then find all their struggles ineffectual. He who has had the art to catch, (like the angler in the emblem) has generally the judgment to secure his prey.

Such a one will but smile at their vain attempts to recover their liberty, while he is sensible these only serve still farther to enthral them. The die is cast, and they become the victims of their own imprudence.

The offers of some men are dangerous; be not therefore led away by specious appearances: think before you act; and let the character of the giver, and the conditions

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