and rash promises, or threats, productive of no consequence, are meant to be described and satirized.

Esop, the author of most of the fables which are current in the collections passing under his name, made his way to eminence, unfavored by any circumstances of birth, fortune, or person: he was a Phrygian, of the lowest order of society, a purchased slave, and of person so deformed, that the description of him is nearly hideous; and, as if merit were allotted to him only to show against what difficulties it can successfully struggle, he had an impediment in his speech, which rendered him almost unintelligible. Yet, by persevering patience, and the manly struggle of a firm and exalted mind, he was enabled to become, not only the companion of his superiors, but the instructer of those who most prided themselves on their wisdom. His pru dent counsels quieted the minds of the Athenians, when they were ready to break out into fatal violence, at the usurpation of Pisistratus; he taught them the dangers they had to apprehend from the alliances, or even the quarrels, of powerful and dangerous neighbors; and all this by such popular narratives as remain forever fixed in the memory, and form a continual guide to the judgment.

The effect of his wisdom was such, that he was not only respected and well treated during his life, but, as Phædrus, the most spirited and accomplished of his translators, has informed us, the polite Athenians dedicated a colossal statue to his memory; and, although he had been but a slave, consecrated his fame on an imperishable pedestal, to inform mankind, says the Roman author, that the road to honorable distinction was open to all men.

Wits of the first class in all nations, from Phæ

drus, in Rome, to La Fontaine, in Paris, have thought their time well employed in collecting, amplifying, pointing, and embellishing the narratives of this author, with the addition of similar stories and anecdotes,--such as passing time and their own observation could supply. Every nation has shown the state of the times, or its prevailing genius, in the manner of rendering, augmenting, or imitating, this, their great model.

Of the imitators of Esop, it is not intended to speak; but self-denial would be too severely taxed, were no mention to be made of the elegant fictions of Gay, so exquisitely invented, and judiciously applied, as to raise a spark of honest envy even in the friendly bosom of Swift.

It is earnestly to be hoped that the fables of Esop, as the means of information and instruction, may never be disused nor neglected. In the course of them he portrays himself as a friend of truth and justice, a man of sincere benevolence, and communicative of his good principles; as a man who honored and feared the gods whom he was brought up to worship, although his mind carried him above the feebleness of superstition, and protected him against the arts of deception.

ARABIAN HOSPITALITY.

Haji Ben Hassuna, a chief of a party of the Bey's (of Tripoli) troops, pursued by Arabs, lost his way, and was benighted near the enemy's camp. Passing the door of a tent which was open, he stopped his horse and implored assistance, being exhausted with fatigue and thirst. The warlike Arab bid his enemy enter his tent with confidence, and treated him with all the respect and hospitality

for which his people are so famous. The highest among them, like the Patriarchs of old, wait on their guest. A man of rank, when visited by a stranger, quickly fetches a lamb from his flock and kills it, and his wife superintends her women in dressing it in the best manner.

With some of the Arabs, the primitive custom (so often spoken of in the Bible,) of washing the feet is yet adopted, and this compliment is performed by the head of the family. Their supper was the best of the fatted lamb roasted; their dessert, dates and dried fruit; and the Arab's wife, to honor more particularly her husband's guest, set before him a dish of boseen" of her own making. This was a preparation of flour and water kneaded into a paste, which being half baked was broken to pieces and kneaded again with new milk, oil, and salt, and garnished with "kadeed," or mutton, dried and salted in the highest manner.

Though these two chiefs were opposed in war, they talked with candor and friendship to each other, recounting the achievements of themselves and their ancestors, when a sudden paleness overspread the countenance of the host. He started from his seat and retired, and in a few moments afterwards sent word to his guest that his bed was prepared, and all things ready for his repose; that he was not well himself, and could not attend to finish the repast; that he had examined the Moor's horse, and found it too much exhausted to bear him through a hard journey the next day, but that before sunrise an able horse with every accommodation would be ready at the door of the tent, where he would meet him and expect him to depart with all speed. The stranger, not able to account farther for the conduct of his host, retired to rest

An Arab waked him in time to take refreshment before his departure, which was ready prepared for him; but he saw none of the family, till he perceived, on reaching the door of the tent, the master of it holding the bridle of his horse, and supporting his stirrups for him to mount, which is done among the Arabs as the last office of friendship. No sooner was Haji mounted, than his host announced to him that throughout the whole of the enemy's camp he had not so great an enemy to dread as himself. "Last night," said he, "in the exploits of your ancestors, you discovered to me the murderer of my father. There lie all the habits he was slain in, (which were at that moment brought to the door of the tent) over which, in the presence of my family, I have many times sworn to revenge his death, and to seek the blood of his murderer from sunrise to sunset. The sun has not yet risen: the sun will be no more than risen, when I pursue you, after you have in safety quitted my tent, where, fortunately for you, it is against our religion to molest you after your having sought my protection and found a refuge there; but all my obligations cease as soon as we part, and from that moment you must consider me as one determined on your destruction, in whatever part, or at whatever distance we may meet again. You have not mounted a horse inferior to the one that stands ready for myself; on its swiftness surpassing that of mine depends one of our lives, or both."

After saying this, he shook his adversary by the hand and parted from him. The Moor, profiting by the few moments he had in advance, reached the Bey's army in time to escape his pursuer, who followed him closely, as near the enemy's camp as

he could with safety. This was certainly a striking trait of hospitality, but it was no more than every Arab and every Moor in the same circumstances would do.

The convent of the Great St. Bernard is situated near the top of the mountain known by that name, near one of the most dangerous passages of the Alps, between Switzerland and Savoy. In these regions the traveller is often overtaken by the most severe weather, even after days of cloudless beauty, when the glaciers glitter in the sunshine, and the pink. flowers of the rhododendron appear as if they were never to be sullied by the tempest. But a storm suddenly comes on; the roads are rendered impassable by drifts of snow; the avalanches, which are huge loosened masses of snow or ice, are swept into the valleys, carrying trees and crags of rock before them. The hospitable monks, though their