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POLITICAL FABLES . NO . II . — THE FARMER AND THE FOX . A farmer , whose poultry-yard had suffered severely from the foxes , succeeded at last in catching one in a trap . " Ah you rascal ! " said he , as he saw him struggling , "I'll teach you to steal my fat geese !—you shall hang on the tree yonder , and your brothers shall see what comes of thieving ! " The farmer was twisting a halter to do what he threatened , when the fox , whose tongue had helped him in hard pinches before , thought there could be no harm in trying whether it might not do him one more good turn .
" You will hang me , " he said , " to frighten my brother foxes . On the word of a fox they won ' t care a rabbit-skin for it ; they ' 11 come and look at me ; but you may depend upon it , they will dine out at your expense before they go home again !" " Then I shall hang you for yourself , as a rogue and a rascal , " said the farmer . " I am only what nature , or whatever you call the thing , chose to make me , " the fox answered . " I did ' nt make myself . " " You stole my geese , " said the man . " Why did nature make me like geese , then , " said the fox . " Live and let live ; give me my share and I won't touch yours ; but you keep them all
to yourself . " I don't understand all your fine talk , " answered the farmer ; " but I know that you are a thief , and that you deserve to be hanged . " His head is too thick to let me catch him so , thought the fox ; I wonder if his heart is any softer ! " You are taking away the life of a fellowcreature , " he said ; " that ' s a responsibility—it is a curious thing that life , and who knows what comes after it ? You say I am a rogue—I say I am not ; but at any rate I ought not to be hanged , for if I am not , I don ' t deserve it , and if I am , you should give me time to repent ! " I have him now , thought the fox ; let him get out if he can . " Why , what would you have me do with you ? " said the man .
" My notion is that you should let me go , and give me a lamb , or goose , or two , every month , and then I could live without stealing ; but , perhaps , you know better than me , and I am a rogue ; my education may have been neglected ; you should shut me up , and take care of me , and teach me . Who knows but in the end I may turn into a dog ?" " Very pretty , " said the farmer ; " we have dogs enough , and more , too , than we can take care of , without you . No , no , master fox , I have caught you , and you shall swing , whatever is the logic of it . There will be one rogue less in the world , any how . " " It is mere hate and unchristian vengeance , " said the fox . " No , friend , " the farmer answered , " I don ' t hate you , and I don ' want
to revenge myself on you ; but you and I can ' t get on together , and I think I am of more importance than you . If nettles and thistles grow in my cabbage-garden , I don ' t try to persuade them to grow into cabbages . I just dig them up . I don ' t hate them ; but I feel somehow that they must n't hinder me with my cabbages , and that I must put them away ; and so , my poor friend , I am sorry for you , but I am afraid you must swing . "
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This is what happened to the fox . Next we shall hear what happened to the fox ' s son .
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WORSHIP . Bravely , friends , ye strive to cross the sea , But the gleaming Bhore approacheo never ) Waves on waves will rise , and waves will flee , But the sky ' s blue circle fades for ever . Cease the eternal ocean to explore , You can never , never , cross its waters ; But that God is God for evermore , Murmurs from Earth ' s thousandfsons and daughters ' . Lives he not to day as yesterday , Builds he not the heavens that hang above us ; Gliding not with gliding hours away , Breathing from the loving hearts that love us ! You will never measure him in thought ; All his fairest , all his best revealings , Visit pure and gentle souls unsought ; Truest worship lies in holy feelings . 33 o not ask him for your daily bread , But cat gladly if your broad come daily ; Patience be your prayer , when hard tested , Sufferers pray who bear their sufferings gaily . Worship him with genuine word and deed , Cast away all fear and craven sadness ; Faith and courage , friends , are all you need , Aud lieligiou is the eternal gladness . M .
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encouriges ^ itse ^—
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THE APPRENTICESHIP OF LIFE . By G . H . LEWES . Chav . II . — Frangipolo . —( Continued . ) Stavros Frangipolo was about thirty years of age . In appearance he was one of those men who flash upon you from amidst a crowd , and , though seen
but for an instant , leave an indelible impression . Closer inspection loved to linger on the details of his striking face—on a delicate brow , compact rather lofty , and having something feminine about it ; on long , dark , glowing than eyes full of tenderness and energy ; on the aquiline nose and sensitive mouth . A short beard covered his chin ; and a rich olive complexion gave the final grace to this strange and Titianesque head , which had so curious a mingling of fierceness and gentleness that Armand sportively likened him to a "
vulture fed on milk !" Loving , generous , and sympathetic , it was his occupation and delight to seek out whatever was noble and loveable in others . He strove to make his existence harmonious by realizing the beautiful in life , and by courageous scorn of whatever was ignoble . In him Plato lived again ; but Plato Christianized—Plato shaping his course , not by a pursuit of the Graceful and the Good—to kumv K&yadov—but by the subordination of the Beautiful to Duty . The idea of Duty was his polar star .
With Frangipolo Armand willingly argued , because the discussion was always conducted fairly ; and they rarely left off without some new idea having been taken up by the eager soul of this boy , becoming the germ of many other ideas . Very early in their acquaintance Frangipolo had uprooted one of his prejudices against religion , as the source of so much bloodshed and misery , by saying : — " The history of religion is , indeed , a bloody page in the annals of tie world ; and the excesses committed in its name give terrible force to its opponents . Yet these excesses demonstrate its strength . Religion profoundly affects the whole nature of man : not his intellect alone , but his whole being .
It is rooted in the very depths of his soul , and has necessaril y stirred his ignoble passions with the same intensity as it has stirred his noblest aspirations . Religion has caused energetic crimes because it was so capable of causing energetic virtues : its energy is its force . It has moved the heights and depths of our nature . Moreover , religion is human , and partakes of that imperfection which belongs to things human ; nothing can be worked out by human means on a large scale and remain thoroughly pure . But religion itself—religion as the highest aspiration of man ' s nature—is no more to be held responsible for auto-da-fes , St . Bartholomew and Smithfield burnings , than the ennobling passion of Love is to be held responsible for all the brutalities which sensuality excites in brutal natures ! "
He also shook one of Armand ' s favourite arguments , founded on the variety of sects into which religion was split , by meeting it boldly thus : — " Sects ! Why , every man who thinks is a sect in himself . That liberty of private judgment which the Reformation inaugurated has made sects inevitable . No two souls are precisely alike ; no two genuine creeds can be precisely similar ; each man has his own religion ; and each is but an incomplete formula of the truth . " " But will not this multiplicity of sects end by destroying religion ? "
" Not at all . They may destroy a church , they cannot touch religion ; they f jrm a question of ecclesiastical polity , and that is all . " " I do not understand the distinction . " " Yet there is one , and it is important . To confound ecclesiastisal polity with religion is the most dangerous of errors : it is confounding a church with the faith—confounding the conduct of man with the destiny of man . All the persecution and bloodshed which make you so eloquent have arisen from the confusion of the church as a faith , with the church as a political institution . The above brief indications will suffice to show what manner of man was this Greek , destined so greatly to influence Armand ' s spiritual life .
Chap . III . — The Soul is Larger than Logic . Armand , Frangipolo , and Gabrielle were inseparable , and day after day they spent hours in discussing the deepest problems of human existence , as if they had been three philosophers instead of a girl of seventeen , a boy of fifteen , and a man of thirty . But it was no common bond of interest which united them . Gabrielle was excessively anxious to see Armand converted , and Frangipolo seemed to her the only person likely to succeed with him ; Armand himself had a strong desire to believe ; and Frangipolo was no less anxious to convince him .
When arguments failed , Gabrielle would bring her personal influence to bear ; and so amidst discussion , pleasantry , and confidential outpourings the hours flew . All this while a spiritual revolution was working in Armand ; the ground was slowly being prepared for the reception of the seed , and Frangipolo was careful not to force the growth of any opinions , confident that in so rich a soil they would never fail to reach maturity in due time . He first made Armand convinced of the necessity for faith , both in masses and in individuals , if anything great was to be achieved ; and he adroitly pointed to China as an illustration of the hopeless helplessness of a nation without a faith : —
" The Chinese , " he said , " have no church ; all their sacred writings are destroyed ; only the works of philosophers remain to guide the souls of men . What is the consequence ? The consequence is that the Chinese have
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42 me 3 Ua& * r . [ Satorpay ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 6, 1850, page 42, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1839/page/18/
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