knights successively with the Tilneys of Norfolk, or, with the Nauntons, show where their ancestors had seven hundred pounds a year before the Conquest, yet he hath endeavoured, by his own deserts, to ennoble himself. Thus valour makes him son to Cæsar; learning entitles him kinsman to Tully; and piety reports him nephew to godly Constantine."

CHAP. VII.

A FABLE. THE STORY OF ALNASCHAR. THE FABLE AND STORY OF UNIVERSAL APPLICATION. A TALE FROM THEOCRITUS.- PRED SHERBOURNE. THE CHARACTER OF HIS FATHER. - FRED'S EXPECTATIONS. -INTENDS TO LEAD THE LIFE OF A GENTLEMAN. COMMENCES GENTLEMANSHIP. THE OBJECT OF ENVY AMONG HIS COMPANIONS. THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER. HIS DISAPPOINTMENT. RESOLVES TO LEAVE ROSE COTTAGE TO SEEK HIS FORTUNE. MY PARTING ADVICE TO HIM. -BECOMES A BANKRUPT.-PLACED IN A COUNTING-HOUSE.-HIS REGRET.-LINES ON CONTENTMENT.

FABLE relates, that

"One evening, as a simple swain
His flock attended on the plain,

The shining bow he chanced to spy,
Which warns us when a shower is nigh.
With brightest rays it seem'd to glow;
Its distance eighty yards or so.

This bumpkin had it seems been told
The story of the cup of gold,

Which fame reports is to be found

Just where the rainbow meets the ground;
He therefore felt a sudden itch

To seize the goblet and be rich;

Hoping, yet hopes are oft but vain,

No more to toil through wind and rain,
But sit indulging by the fire,

'Midst ease and plenty, like a squire.
He mark'd the very spot of land

On which the rainbow seem'd to stand,
And stepping forwards at his leisure,
Expected to have found the treasure.
But as he moved, the colour'd ray
Still chang'd its place and slipp'd away,
As seeming his approach to shun.
From walking he began to run:
But all in vain, it still withdrew
As nimbly as he could pursue.

At last, through many a bog and lake,
Rough, craggy road, and thorny brake,
It led the easy fool, till night

Approach'd, then vanish'd in his sight,
And left him to compute his gains,

With naught but labour for his pains."- WILKIE.

In eastern story there is also this tale, whereby men may be warned from building castles in the air. Alnaschar, the story relates, was an idle fellow, who would not set his hand to any business during the lifetime of his father. When his father died he left him the value of one hundred drachmas in Persian money, and Alnaschar, in order to make the best of it, laid it out in glass and the finest earthenware. He piled these up in a large basket, and having made choice of a small shop, he placed the basket at his feet in expectation of customers.

While waiting, he fell into an amusing train of thought, and was overheard by one of his neighbours to talk to himself thus: "This basket cost me, at the wholesale merchant's, one hundred drachmas, which is all I have in the world. By selling it in retail I shall quickly make two hundred of it. These two hundred drachmas will in a little time rise to four hundred, which in time will amount to four thousand. Four thousand drachmas cannot fail of making eight thousand. As soon as by this means I am master of ten thousand, I will lay aside my trade as a glassman, and turn jeweller: I will deal in diamonds, pearls, and all sorts of rich stones. When I have got together as much wealth as I can desire, I will make a purchase of the finest house I can find, with land, slaves, eunuchs, and horses. I shall then begin to enjoy myself, and to make a figure in the world. I will not, however, stop there, but continue to traffic till I have heaped up one hundred thousand drachmas. When master of this sum I will set myself on

the footing of a prince, and will demand the daughter of the Grand Vizier in marriage, after having first represented to him the information which I have received of the beauty, wit, discretion, and other noble qualities which his daughter possesses. I will let him know at the same time that it is my intention to make him a present of a thousand pieces of gold on the marriage night. As soon as we are married I will buy my princess ten black eunuchs, the youngest and the finest that can be obtained for money. Afterwards I will visit my father-in-law with a great train and equipage, and when I am placed at his right hand I will give him the pieces of gold which I promised him, and afterwards, in order to surprise him, I will present him with another purse of the same value, saying, as I present it, 'Sir, you see I am a man of my word; I always give more than I promise."" Alnaschar was absorbed in his vision, and his joy at the honours that awaited him were so great that he could not forbear leaping for happiness. Unfortunately, however, in his joyous leap, he struck his basket of brittle ware, which was the foundation of all his grandeur: its contents were broken into ten thousand pieces, and all his hopes vanished. The castles he had been building in the air were suddenly demolished by his own imprudence.

The simple swain in the fable is not the only one who has sought the cup of gold at the point where the rainbow meets the ground; nor is Alnaschar, the Persian, the only one who has indulged in visions of wealth, honour, and greatness.

The fable and the Eastern story are alike of universal application. In every age, and in every country, men are to be met with who dream of gold and glory. The Greek poet Theocritus, in his work entitled Idyllia, relates a beautiful tale exhibiting this passion of the human heart. He relates, that two old fishermen, Asphalion and his friend, had been sleeping "on the dry sea-weed," and that when they shook from their eyes

"The sleepy dews

They cheer'd their bosoms with an artless muse."

Their muse thus discoursed:

66

Asphalion. Sure, friend, they lie who say the summer light
Soon brings the day-spring, and curtails the night;
For I have seen this night full many a dream
Though yet far distant from the morning beam.
Have I forgot? In truth I am not wrong:
The tedious hours lag heavily along.

"Friend. How vain to blame the summer sun's delay! The hours unvarying urge their destined way.

'Tis care that lengthens out the gloom more deep
At every tedious pause of broken sleep.

Asphalion. Pray, hast thou learn'd, my friend, the happy art
A dream's mysterious meaning to impart ?
To thee I would unfold my nightly care,
And as we share our fish, the vision share.
Come then, I tell thee, 'twas a charming sight,
And trust thy genius will interpret right.

He seems, my friend, the shrewdest judge of dreams
In whom the spirit of conjecture beams.

We've ample time: here sleepless on a bed

Of leaves, the billows gurgling round our shed,
What shall we do? Indeed the living light
In Prytaneum burns both day and night.

"Friend. Come, then, recite this vision to thy friend,
Whose ear shall ev'ry incident attend.

Asphalion. When weary from our labours on the deep,
Last evening, I had clos'd my eyes in sleep

- My stomach was not full, for supping late
A sparing meal we hastily had ate ;-
Methought upon a shelving rock I stood
And eyed the gambols of the scaly brood:
Let down as I was wont my baited hook,
And oft the glancing lure impatient shook.

M