h grew beyond his reach,
walked composedly away, solemnly assuring himself and Mr AEsop, who
overheard him, that as yet the grapes were unripe. The story, or any
allusion to it, seldom fails to excite a smile. I, too, laugh when I
hear it; but not so much at Reynard's inconsistency as at his wit. The
faculty of discovering grave defects in that which we have failed to
obtain is one for which we cannot be too thankful. It is a source of
infinite comfort in this comfortless world--a principle which enables
both parties in every contest to be victorious--an important article in
the great law of compensation. It is as old as the human race. The great
fabulist no more invented it than Lord Bacon invented inductive
reasoning. Like that philosopher, he simply enunciated a principle which
had been unconsciously recognized and constantly used ever since the
machinery of the human mind was first set in motion. I have no doubt
that when Adam found himself outside of Eden he wondered how he could
have been contented to remain so long in that little garden, assorting
pinks and training honeysuckles, when here lay a vast farm, well watered
and fertile, needing only to be cleared, fenced, and cultivated to yield
a handsome income.

It is well that pride should sometimes have a fall. But you and I, dear
reader, have often seen envious people gloating over that fall in any
but a Christian spirit. At such times have we not rejoiced at any
circumstance which could break the force of the fall and disappoint the
gratification of such malicious hopes? And what has accomplished that
object so often and so effectually as Reynard's great principle?

Once or twice in my life I have seen a smile on a female face under
circumstances which made it impossible to doubt that the smile was
gotten up for my especial benefit. On such occasions my sense of
gratitude (which is quite large) and my vanity (which is very small)
have conspired to exalt women in my estimation to perhaps an undue
elevation. They have seemed to me to be angels visiting poor, weak,
degraded man from pure motives of love and sympathy. And I have felt a
sort of chagrin that we have only such a dirty, ill-constructed world to
ask them into. But let us suppose that a short time afterward I see on
the same face a decided frown or a look of chilling disdain (I do not
say that I ever did), under circumstances which indicate that this also
is displayed with reference to, and out of a kin