GRATITUDE. 151°

meanness and turpitude than almost any
other single vice. Let my readers beware
how they indulge it, even in the most trifling
affairs of life. 1 will tell you a story, which
shows that one of the most savage of brutes
is not insensible to kindness. Will you take
a lower moral standing than,a wild beast ?

In the famous days of ancient Rome, it
was a custom to have a circus where lions
and tigers were kept, and human beiags
were thrown into them and devoured, in
punishment of offences they had committed
against the government. | The exhibition 0
these bloody scenes was one of the favorite
public amusements of the Romans.

It chanced that upon a certain time @
slave, by the name of Androcles, had escaped
and fled to the forests of Africa. He took
refuge in a cave where he found a lion, whick
having got a thorn in his foot, was in grea
agony from the swelling and festering of th:
wound. Androcles extracted the thorn, anc®
dressed the wound, and the lion and he
parted. rs

After some years Androcles, venturin;
back to Rome; was seized, and condemne