new cause of astonishment.

     I.12

    While, in their alarm, they are flying to the well-known outlets, they are overpowered by the dread onset of the Lion; who, after he was wearied with slaughter, called forth the Ass

     from his retreat

    , and bade him cease his clamour. On this the other, in his insolence,

     inquired

    : “What think you of the assistance given by my voice?” “Excellent!” said

     the Lion

    , “so much so, that if I had not been acquainted with your spirit and your race, I should have fled in alarm like

     the rest

     .”

    This story shows that what you contemn is often found of more utility than what you load with praises.

    A Stag, when he had drunk at a stream, stood still, and gazed upon his likeness in the water. While there, in admiration, he was praising his branching horns, and finding fault with the extreme thinness of his legs, suddenly roused by the cries of the huntsmen, he took to flight over the plain, and with nimble course escaped the dogs. Then a wood received the beast; in which, being entangled and caught by his horns, the dogs began to tear him to pieces with savage bites. While dying, he is said to have uttered these words: “Oh, how unhappy am I, who now too late find out how useful to me were the things that I despised; and what sorrow the things I used to praise, have caused me.”

    He who is delighted at being flattered with artful words,

     generally

    pays the ignominious penalty of a late repentance.

    As a Raven, perched in a lofty tree, was about to eat a piece of cheese, stolen from a window,

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