Two men being to travel through a forest together, mutually promised to stand by each other in any danger they should meet upon the way. They had not gone far before a Bear came rushing towards them out of a thicket; upon which one, being a light nimble fellow, got up into a tree; the other falling flat upon his face, and holding his breath, lay still while the Bear came up and smelled at him; but that creature, supposing him to be a dead carcass, went back again into the wood, without doing him the least harm. When all was over, the Spark who had climbed the tree came down to his companion, and, with a pleasant smile, asked him what the Bear said to him—'For,' says he, 'I took notice that he clapt his mouth very close to your ear.'——'Why,' replies the other, 'he charged me to take care, for the future, not to put any confidence in such cowardly rascals as you.'

APPLICATION.

Though nothing is more common than to hear people profess services of friendship where there is no occasion for them, yet scarce any thing is so hard to be found as a true friend, who will assist us in time of danger and difficulty. All the declarations of kindness which are made to an experienced man, though accompanied by a squeeze of the hand, and a solemn asseveration, should leave no greater impression upon his mind than the whistling of the hollow breeze which brushes one's ear with an unmeaning salute, and is presently gone. He that succours our necessity by a well-timed assistance, though it were not ushered in by previous compliments, will ever after be looked upon as our friend and protector; and, in so much a greater degree, as the favour was unasked and unpromised; as it was not extorted by importunities on the one side, nor led in by a numerous attendance of promises on the other. Words are nothing till they are fulfilled by actions; and therefore we should not suffer ourselves to be deluded by a vain hope and reliance upon them.