The Cat, having a mind to make a meal of the Cock, seized him one morning by surprise, and asked him what he could say for himself why slaughter should not pass upon him?—The Cock replied, that he was serviceable to mankind by crowing in the morning, and calling them up to their daily labour.—'That is true,' says the Cat, 'and is the very objection that I have against you; for you make such a shrill impertinent noise, that people cannot sleep for you. Besides you are an incestuous rascal, and make no scruple of lying with your mother and sisters.'—'Well,' says the Cock, 'this I do not deny; but I do it to procure eggs and chickens for my master.'—'Ah! villain,' says the Cat, 'hold your wicked tongue; such impieties as these declare that you are no longer fit to live.'

APPLICATION.

When a wicked man in power has a mind to glut his appetite in any respect, innocence, or even merit, is no protection against him. The cries of justice and the voice of reason are of no effect upon a conscience hardened in iniquity, and a mind versed in a long practice of wrong and robbery. Remonstrances, however reasonably urged, or movingly couched, have no more influence upon the heart of such a one, than the gentle evening breeze has upon the oak when it whispers among its branches, or the rising surges upon the deaf rock when they dash and break against its sides. Power should never be trusted in the hands of an impious selfish man, and one that has more regard to the gratification of his own unbounded avarice than to public peace and justice. Were it not for the tacit consent and heartless compliance of a great majority of fools, mankind would not be ridden, as oftentimes they are, by a little majority of knaves, to their great misfortune: for, whatever people may think of the times, if they were ten times worse than they are, it is principally owing to their own stupidity. Why do they trust the man a moment longer who has once injured and betrayed them?