64 HUMILITY.

permitted to pass on, unheeded perchance,
but yet unhurt. The fable of the Oak and
the Reed will illustrate this. ‘

An oak stood on the bank of a river,
and growing at its foot was a reed. The
oak was aged, and its limbs were torn away
by the blasts of years 5 but still it lifted its
head in pride, and looked down with contempt
upon the reed.

At last there came a fearful tempest. The
oak defied it, but the reed trembled in every
fibre. “See,” said the oak, “ the advantage
of strength and power; see how I resist and
triumph !”

While it spoke thus, a terrible rush of the
gale beset it, its roots gave way, and it fell
to the earth with a tremendous crash. But
while the oak was thus destroyed in itspride,
the humble reed bowed to the blast, and,
when the storm was over, it arose and flou-
rished as before.