practised, gold and silver would be reckoned

as nothing. (43)

APPLICATION.

My beloved, Tiberius is any man who in poverty is humble and virtuous, but raised to affluence forgets every honest feeling. The artificer is any poor man who presents the rich with unacceptable gifts.

TALE XLV.

OF THE GOOD, WHO ALONE WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

THERE was a wise and rich king who possessed a beloved, but not a loving wife. She had three illegitimate sons who proved ungrateful

and rebellious to their reputed parent *. In due time she brought forth another son, whose legitimacy was undisputed; and after arriving at a good old age, he died, and was buried in the royal sepulchre of his fathers. But the death of the old king caused great strife amongst his surviving sons, about the right of succession. All of them advanced a claim, and none would relinquish it to the other; the three first, presuming upon their priority in birth, and the last upon his legitimacy. In this strait, they agreed to refer the absolute decision of their cause to a certain honourable soldier of the late king. When this person, therefore, heard their difference, he said," Follow my advice, and it will greatly benefit you. Draw from its sepulchre the body of the deceased monarch; prepare, each of you, a bow and single shaft, and whosoever transfixes the heart of his father, shall obtain the kingdom." The counsel was approved, the body was taken from its repository and bound naked to a tree.

It is stated in the first book of Herodotus, that the Persians considered a rebellious son undoubtedly illegitimate. This is another strong proof of the oriental structure of these stories. See Tale XXVI.

sure.

The arrow of the first son wounded the king's right hand-on which, as if the contest were determined, they proclaimed him heir to the throne. But the second arrow went nearer, and entered the mouth; so that he too considered himself the undoubted lord of the kingdom. However, the third perforated the heart itself, and consequently imagined that his claim was fully decided, and his succession It now came to the turn of the fourth and last son to shoot; but instead of fixing his shaft to the bow-string, and preparing for the trial, he broke forth into a lamentable cry, and with eyes swimming in tears, said, "Oh! my poor father; have I then lived to see you the victim of an impious contest? Thine own offspring lacerate thy unconscious clay?— Far, oh! far be it from me to strike thy venerated form, whether living or dead.” No sooner had he uttered these words, than the nobles of the realm, together with the whole people, unanimously elected him to the throne; and depriving the three barbarous wretches of their rank and wealth, expelled them for ever from the kingdom. (44)

APPLICATION.

My beloved, that wise and rich king is the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who joined himself to our flesh, as to a beloved wife. But going after other gods, it forgot the love due to him in return, and brought forth by an illicit connection, three sons, viz. Pagans, Jews, and Heretics. The first, wounded the right hand—that is, the doctrine of Christ by persecutions. The second, the mouth-when they gave Christ vinegar and gall to drink; and the third, wounded, and continue to wound the heart,—while they strive, by every sophistical objection, to deceive the faithful. The fourth son is any good Christian.

TALE XLVI.

OF MORTAL SINS.

JULIUS relates, that in the month of May a certain man entered a grove, in which stood seven beautiful trees in leaf. The leaves so much attracted him, that he than he had strength to carry.

collected more

On this, three

men came to his assistance, who led away both the man and the load beneath which he laboured. As he went out he fell into a deep pit, and the extreme weight upon his shoulders sank him to the very bottom.-The same author also relates, in his history of animals, that if, after a crow had built her nest, you wished to hinder her from hatching her eggs, place between the bark and the tree a quantity of pounded glass *; and as long as it remained in that situation, she would never bring off her young.

* Cineres; ashes of glass,