must a failure be,
And out of it no profit come, but sheer vexation.

A Swan, a Pike, and Crab once took their station
In harness, and would drag a loaded cart;
But, when the moment came for them to start,

They sweat, they strain, and yet the cart stands still; what's lacking?
The load must, as it seemed, have been but light;
The Swan, though, to the clouds takes flight,
The Pike into the water pulls, the Crab keeps backing.

Now which of them was right, which wrong, concerns us not;
The cart is still upon the selfsame spot.

246

This fable from the Old Testament is one of the
very oldest on record in which a story is
practically applied to a human problem. The
causes of political corruption apparently have
not changed much in three thousand years.
American citizens gather together at certain
times to choose mayors and other officers to
rule over them, and when they say to the
fruitful olive tree, or fig tree, or vine,
"Come thou and reign over us," he replies,
"Should I forsake my productive factory, or
mine, or profession, to be mayor?" But when
they say to the bramble, "Come thou and reign
over us," he replies, "Put your trust in me,
and let those suffer who object to my
management of public affairs." Jotham's lesson
of political duty is one greatly needed in the
present-day attempt to raise our standard of
citizenship.

THE BRAMBLE IS MADE KING

_Judges ix: 6-16_

And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of
Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar
that was in Shechem. And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood
in the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and
said unto them:--

"Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. The
trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said
unto the olive tree, 'Reign thou over us.' But the olive tree said unto
them, 'Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and
man, and go to be promoted over the trees?'

"And the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come thou and reign over us.' But
the fig tree said unto them, 'Should I forsake my sweetness and my good
fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?'

"Then said the trees unto the vine, 'Come thou an