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» her commands in keeping close to this » my defender, and not hearken to you, » who, no doubt, would devour me, if I » was alone, and separated from my honest » friend and companion ».

Children, who are desirous and expect that God should bless and protect them, most heartily and dutifully obey their parents, and follow the good precepts of their tutors, governours and guardians; and in their love, wisdom and experience, find themselves safe : whereas, if they suffer themselves to be seduced, and run carelessly from under their care and government, their misconduct commonly ends in wretchedness and ruin.

THE DER VISE.

A Dervise, travelling thro' Tartary, being arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by mistake, as thinking it to be a public inn or caravansary. Having looked about him for some time, he entered into a long gallery, where he laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, in order to

ner,

repose himself upon it after the manner of the eastern nations. He had not been long in this posture, before he was discovered by some of the guards, who asked him what was his business in that place? The Dervise told them he intended to take up his night's lodging in that caravansary. The guards let him know, in a very angry manthat the house he was in was not a caravansary, but the king's palace. It happened that the king himself passed through the " gallery during this debate, and smiling at the mistake of the Dervise, asked him how he could possibly be so dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravansary? Sir, says the Dervise, give me leave to ask your majesty a question or two. Who were the persons that lodged in this house when it was first built? The king replied, His ancestors. And who, says the Dervise, was the last person that lodged here? The king replied, His father. And who is it, says the Dervise, that lodges here at present? The king told him, that it was he himself. And who, says the Dervise, will be here after you? The king answered, The young prince his son. « Ah, Sir, said the » Dervise, a house that changes its inhabi

>> tants so often, and receives such a per»petual succession of guests, is not a palace, but a caravansary ».

SPECTATOR.

WE

TURKISH TAL E.

E are told that the Sultan Mahmoud, by his perpetual wars abroad, and his tyranny at home, had filled his dominions with ruin and desolation, and had unpeopled the Persian Empire. The visier to this great Sultan (whether an humorist or an enthusiast, we are not informed) pretended to have learned of a certain Dervisé to understand the language of birds, so that there was not a bird that could open his mouth, but the visier knew what it was he said. As he was one evening with the emperor, in their return from hunting, they saw a couple of owls upon a tree that grew near an old wall out of a heap of rubbish. I would fain know, says the sultan, what those two owls are saying to one another; listen to their discourse and give me an account of it. The visier approached the

tree,

tree, pretending to be very attentive to the two owls. Upon his return to the Sultan, Sir, says he, I have heard part of their conversation, but dare not tell you what it is. The Sultan would not be satisfied with such an answer, but forced him to repeat word for word every thing the owls had said. You must know then, said the Visier, that one of these owls has a son, and the other a daughter, between whom they are now upon a treaty of marriage. The father of the son said to the father of the daughter, in my hearing: Brother, I consent to this marriage, provided you will settle upon your daughter fifty ruined villages for her portion. To which the father of the daughter replied, instead of fifty I will give her five hundred, if you please. God grant a long life to Sultan Mahmoud; whilst he reigns over us, we shall never want ruined villages.

The story says, the Sultan was so touched with the fable, that he rebuilt the towns and villages which had been destroyed, and from that time forward consulted the good of his people.

SPECTATOR.

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RESPECT DUE TO OLD AGE.

IT happened at Athens during a public representation of some play exhibited in honour of the commonwealth, that an old gentleman came too late for a place suitable to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen who observed the difficulty and confusion he was in, made signs to him that they would accommodate him if he came where they sat. The good man bustled through the crowd accordingly ; but when he came to the seats to which he was invited, the jest was, to sit close and expose him, as he stood out of countenance, to the whole audiencexThe frolic went round all the Athenian benches. But on those occasions there were also particular places assigned for foreigners: when the good man skulked towards the boxes appointed for the Lacedemonians, that honest people, more virtuous than polite, rose up all to a man, and with the greatest respect received him among them. The Athenians being suddenly touched with a sense of the Spartan vir

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