when he is lying down; whereas the rich man without manliness, and who is little thought of in the midst of his wealth, is like a cowardly dog which nobody cares for, though he has a rich collar about his neck, and rings upon his feet. And let it not grieve you your being in a foreign land; for the wise man in exile is like the lion, who, let him go where he will, his strength goes with him. So think well of what you have done for yourself; for if you do so, good will seek thee even as water seeks its descent. Success belongs to the diligent and the prudent; but as for the slothful and the shiftless, no good goes with him, any more than with the young woman who marries an old and withered man. For there are five things, it is said, in which stability and truth are not to be expected. They are, the shadow of a summer cloud, the friendship of the wicked, the love of women, the tale of a liar, and wealth rapidly grown. Wherefore the wise man will not be sad on account of the little that he possesses; for his wealth is his understanding, and the treasure of good deeds he has sent on before him * (to the day of judgment): of this, he trusts that he shall never be robbed, whilst he has no fear of being charged with any false account for what he hath not done. He is not the one to be neglectful of his latter end, knowing that death is ever unexpected, and hath no appointed time. You need not my admonition, since you are yourself so knowing; but I thought to do you right, for you are our brother now, and all that we can teach or give is thine.

When the raven had heard what the tortoise said to the mouse, and how kindly and elegantly she had replied to him, he was vastly delighted. You have made me very glad, said he; you have conferred a great favor upon me;

This "sending on of good deeds" before one is a peculiar Mohammedan and Koranic phrase; and must, therefore, be regarded as an accommodation of something of the same general import in the Indian or Persian. It resembles, however, very much the New Testament idea of "laying up treasure in heaven."

and may you ever have as much joy as you have given. For the good are ever watching over and helping the good. Especially is it the case that, when such a one stumbles, or falls into trouble, it is only one like him that gives him the hand; as when the elephant sinks in the marsh, it is only another elephant that can draw him out.

Now, whilst the raven was in the midst of this speech, there suddenly dashed in among them a gazelle, running very swiftly, and giving them all a terrible fright. Down sunk the tortoise in the water; away scud the mouse to his hole; up flew the raven and lighted on a tree. Then he soared high in the heavens,* that he might see if any one was in pursuit of the gazelle. Nothing, however, could he discover, and so he called to his friends, who thereupon came out again from their retreats. When the tortoise saw the gazelle looking eagerly to the water, Drink, said she, if you are thirsty, and be in no fear, for there is nothing here to cause you dread. Then the gazelle

*This kind of language shows great antiquity. It is an Old Testament style of speech. We say, "birds of the air;" the scriptural term is everywhere (in the Hebrew), "birds of the heavens." It came from the idea of birds actually flying up to the heavens, the abode of the celestial powers. Hence afterwards, when superstition obscured the pure old patriarchalism, the wide-spread idea of divination by birds, as having some kind of intercourse with the heavenly beings. Thus, in Greek, there is the same word for bird and omen. We see it, too, in the Latin aus(avis)picium. This higher knowledge of the birds was supposed to be obtained by us in watching the direction of their flights, listening to their notes, or examining their vital parts in sacrifice. The raven, especially, was always regarded as a far-seeing, prophetic bird. This has been supposed by some to have had some connection with Noah's employment of him as a messen. ger from the ark. It was also the bird sent to feed Elijah. We need not attach much importance to this; but, at all events, the keen sight of birds, in their great elevation, is used, in the Bible, to represent surpassing or superhuman knowledge. Compare Job xxviii. 7: "a path which no fowl knoweth," and v. 21: "it is hid from the birds of heaven." The language is employed to denote great inscrutableness; referring to that hidden or higher "wisdom" which this sublime chapter represents man as seeking in vain through all nature. Compare, also, Ecclesiastes x. 20: "For a bird of the air (Heb., bird of the heavens) shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."

drew nigh, and the tortoise saluted him, and wished him health, and said to him, Whence came you to us? I have been, said he, in the wide desert, where the riding huntsmen. are ever chasing me from place to place. This day, in particular, I saw an old man coming along, who I was afraid might be one of them, and so I fled as usual. Don't be frightened, said the tortoise; for we never see any huntsmen here; and we will give you our love, and a place to live in; and here is water and pasture in plenty, if you can be content in our society. So the gazelle stayed with them, and there was a shady place where they all used to meet together, and had much good discourse, and told each other instructive stories. So they lived on, until at last, one day, the raven, and the mouse, and the tortoise, were together in the arisha, but the gazelle was missing. So they waited, and waited, hour after hour, but he came not. It was a long time, and they began to be very much afraid lest some harm might have happened to him. At last the mouse and the tortoise said to the raven, Your eyes are sharp; fly up, and see if there is any thing near to us. Then the raven soared very high in the heavens, looking keenly out, and, lo and behold! the gazelle lay afar off entangled in the nets of the huntsman. Down he flew swiftly, and told them what had happened. Then said the tortoise and the raven to the mouse, Here is work for you; we must despair, without your assistance, of giving any help to our brother. Come on, then, and aid him all in your power. The mouse started immediately with all speed, and when he came to the gazelle, Alas! said he, how came you in so sad a case as this? for you are one of the sharp-eyed, and should have looked out. Said the gazelle, What can sharpness do against the Fates? Whilst they were in this talk, the tortoise came crawling up, and the gazelle said, Alas! what possessed you to come? for if the huntsman gets here by the time the mouse has gnawed the nets, we must leave you to the foe; for there

are holes into which the mouse can run; but as for thee, O my slow friend, there is no hurrying thee, nor even moving thee. It is on your account, therefore, that I especially fear the huntsman's coming. Said the tortoise, There is no living away from one's friends; for when friend parts from friend, he is robbed of his heart, he is deprived of his joy, his eye is darkened. The tortoise was proceeding in this strain; but before she had finished her words, the huntsman drew nigh, and this was just at the time when the mouse had finished the cutting of the net. Immediately the gazelle made off with himself, the raven went soaring up in the air, and the mouse took refuge in one of the holes of the desert. Nothing remained but the tortoise. She was creeping off, when the huntsman came up and found his net cut to pieces. Looking round, right and left, he espied her moving slowly along, and immediately seized and bound her. In the meantime the raven, the mouse, and the gazelle, had made no delay in getting together as soon as possible, after they had seen the huntsman bind the tortoise. And their grief was very great, and the mouse began to talk wisely, and said: We can never know that we have passed through all trouble until we have been in the worst of it; and he was very right, who said that one should never cease his efforts to keep out of difficulty; for when he has once stumbled, he will keep on stumbling, though he were walking on the smooth and level plain. Oh, how I fear for the tortoise, that best of friends, whose friendship, instead of being mercenary, or seeking any reward, is a generous and noble friendship-stronger, indeed, than that of a parent to his child—a friendship that death alone can destroy. Alas, for this body, of ours,* so loaded

The mouse's philosophizing here suggests somo of the questions of the early Greek schools about the continual flux of matter, and change of bodily forms-" Does any thing stand?" It has, however, still more of a Buddhistic look. Some of the terms used by the Arabian translator show that he did not fully understand it. It is clearer in Simeon Seth.

with miseries, ever coming and going, ever flowing away, where there is nothing that stays, or remains the same;like the rising and setting star, one ever following the other, no rest, but change forever; or like the pain of wounds that are ever breaking out anew, so bleeds afresh the heart that is wounded by the loss of friends after it has enjoyed their society.

Then the gazelle and the raven said to the mouse: Surely we are anxious, as well as you; but your talk, though indeed it is very eloquent,* will give no help to the tortoise; for it is truly said that men are tried in adversity, children and kindred are tested by poverty, and brothers are proved by evil fortune. True, said the mouse, but I can do something more than talk; I see a way to get us out of this trouble. It is this: let the gazelle go and fall down in view of the huntsman, as though he was wounded; and then let the raven pounce down upon him as though intending to eat him; whilst I will dart on, keeping near the huntsman, and watching him very closely; it may be that he will throw his stick at him, and, for that purpose, lay down the tortoise, giving his whole attention to you, that he yet may get possession of the gazelle. When he comes near, then start up again, and run on a little way, just far enough to keep up his eagerness, and make him think that he will be able to catch you; so, leading him on farther and farther from us, keeping one side of him, and just as near as you

This looks again as though the gazelle and the raven meant to be a little quizzical, on our very friendly, but rather overrighteous, mouse. We have specimens of such continual moralizing, without much rhyme or reason, in the discourses that pass between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Indeed, all through, Cervantes seems to present it as a trait of the common Spanish discourse. They may have got it from the Arabians, who manifest this tendency very strongly in their ethics, poetry, and legends. The original unabridged Arabian Nights tales are full of it. In a sublimer form we see something of this rhapsodic Oriental sententiousness in the long speeches of Job's friends.

dare. During this time I will be gnawing the cords of the tortoise, with good hope of getting her loose before the huntsman comes back. The raven and the gazelle did what the mouse advised them. The huntsman went in pursuit, and the gazelle led him on until he had got very far away, while the mouse applied himself to the cutting of the cords, and the tortoise had time to get off to a safe hiding-place. When the huntsman came back, blowing and weary, and found the cords cut again, he fell to thinking over the matter, and all about the gazelle that he had been expecting to catch, and the curious conduct of the raven, until he began to think himself utterly muddled* in his understanding. He could not imagine how it was his cords all gnawed to pieces, and no one in sight; whilst the look of the place grew lonely and weird. Surely, said he, this must be the devil's territory, a land of Jins and sorcery. So he went away without hunting any more. But the raven, and the gazelle, and the mouse, and the tortoise, all came together in their shady retreat, safe and sound, and rejoicing in their good fortune.

Then said Bidpai, the philosopher, unto Dabschelim, the king: See how these creatures here, even in their smallness and their weakness, were able to deliver themselves from the bands of destruction-and that, too, time after time-because they had love in its purity and constancy, and were ever ready to help each other. And so MAN, on whom is bestowed reason and judgment, who is inspired to distinguish good and evil, and gifted with discernment and knowledge, — HE, above all other beings, is designed for society, and fitted for friendship and mutual help.

This, O King, is the story for which you asked a picture of true friends, and of the happy life they led.

* Arabic, choulat,-all mixed up, as we say.

THE interest of readers has been drawn very much of late to the land of Abyssinia, partly in consequence of the barbarous manner in which two representatives of the English government have been treated by the Emperor Theodore, and partly by the sudden and amazing reverses which have fallen on the head of that half-barbarian, and yet strangely powerful and enlightened monarch. We propose, in this article, not to deal with a matter so complex, in any exhaustive fashion, but merely to bring out its salient features.

The Emperor Theodore was not a lineal descendant of the line of Abyssinian kings, although he was accustomed to take great pains to prove himself so. On the other hand, he was the offspring of "poor but respectable" parents, his mother being a vender of the favorite medicine used by those afflicted by that scourge of the land, the tape-worm. The line of rulers which became extinct when Theodore ascended the throne in 1855 made its boast to have sprung from the union of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; but there is no reason to believe that it was especially ancient, or especially honorable in its origin. The country has been for fourteen centuries, however, nominally Christian, it having early been traversed by agents from Alexandria, and maintaining, under the name of the Coptic Church, many of the rites which characterize the Roman

Catholic body at the present day. The population of the country is supposed to be about three millions. These were governed, previously to 1855, by rival princes, of whom Ras Ali was the chief. At that time young Kasai (subsequently the Emperor Theodore), then a subaltern in the employ of Ras Ali, began to distinguish himself by his activity, intelligence, and capacity. He rapidly rose in the royal favor, and on being entrusted with a division of the army, he turned it against his sovereign, and

made himself master of one of the southern provinces of the land. Emboldened by the stroke of success, he soon collected an immense army, and swept through the whole length and breadth of the country. His noble presence, engaging manners, his bright mind, and his large promises, won the confidence of the people everywhere, and in a short time he was master of the situation. His rapid rise may, in many respects, be likened to that of the first Napoleon, whom, indeed, he not a little resembles. The same 66 destiny" which Bonaparte used to plead, the youthful Kasai heartily believed in, and the one became Napoleon and the other Theodore by entire surrender to the sway of this faith in the future.

The best account of Theodore that I have met is by Mr. Plowden, and is so graphic and entertaining that I need make no apology for inserting it here.

"The king," he says, "is young in years, vigorous in all manly exercises, of a striking countenance, peculiarly polite and engaging when pleased, and mostly displaying great tact and delicacy. He is persuaded that he is destined to restore the glories of the Ethiopian empire, and to achieve great conquests. Of untiring energy, both mental and bodily, his personal and moral daring are boundless. The latter is well proved by his severity towards his soldiers, even when these are pressed by hunger, are mutinous, and he is in front of a powerful foe; more so even by his pressing reforms on a country so little used to any yoke, whilst engaged in unceasing hostilities, and his suppression of the power of the great feudal chiefs, at a moment when any inferior man would have sought to conciliate them as the steppingstones to empire.

"When aroused, his wrath is terrible, and all tremble; but at all moments he possesses a

perfect self-command. Indefatigable in busi

ness, he takes little repose night or day; his ideas and language are clear and precise; hesitation is not known to him; and he has neither councillors nor go-betweens. He is fond of

splendor, and receives in state even on a cam

paign. He is unsparing in punishment-very necessary to restrain disorder, and to restore order in such a wilderness as Abyssinia. He

salutes his meanest subjects with courtesy; is sincerely though often mistakenly religious, and will acknowledge a fault committed towards his poorest follower in a moment of passion, with sincerity and grace.

·

"He is generous to excess, and free from all cupidity, regarding nothing with pleasure or desire but munitions of war for his soldiers. He has hitherto exercised the utmost clemency towards the vanquished, treating them rather as his friends than his enemies. His faith is signal. Without Christ,' he says, 'I am nothing. If He has destined me to purify and reform this distracted kingdom, with His aid, who shall stay me?' Nay, sometimes he is on the point of not caring for human assistance at all; and this is one reason why he will not seck with much avidity for assistance from or alliance with Europe.

"The worst points in his character are his violent anger at times, his unyielding pride as regards his kingly and divine right, and his fanatical religious zeal.

"He has begun to reform even the dress of Abyssinia, all about his person wearing large flowing trowsers, and upper and under vests, instead of the half-naked costumes introduced

by the Gallas. Married himself at the altar, and strictly continent, he has ordered or persuaded all who love him to follow his example, and exacts the greatest decency of manners and conversation. This system he hopes to extend to all classes.

"He has suppressed the slave-trade in all its phases, save that the slaves already bought may be sold to such Christians as shall buy them for charity. Setting the example, he pays to the Musselman dealers what price they please to ask for the slaves they bring to him, and then baptizes them.

"He has abolished the barbarous practice of delivering over murderers to the relatives of the deceased, handing over offenders, in public, to his own executioners, to be shot or decapitated.

"The arduous task of breaking the power of the great feudal chiefs-a task achieved in Europe only during the reign of many consecutive kings-he has commenced by chaining almost all who were dangerous, avowing his intention of liberating them when his power shall be consolidated. He has placed the soldiers of the different provinces under the command of his own trusty followers, to whom he has given high titles, but no power to judge or punish; thus, in fact, creating generals in place of feudal chieftains more proud of their birth than of their monarch, and organizing a new nobility, a legion of honor dependent on himself, and chosen specially for their daring and fidelity."

This sketch was written many years ago, but it shows that the man who

could call out so much enthusiasm could be no common character. It is probable, however, that his good qualities have faded since that time, and that his darker traits have been gaining the ascendant.

It was in 1855 that the young Emperor of the now united Abyssinia was crowned, and every thing promised well for his sway. He was strongly opposed to all Mahometans, and as strongly drawn to Europeans. Indeed, it is not too much to say, that if his first letter to Queen Victoria, in 1862, had not been contemptuously passed over in silence, his desire for an alliance with the English, as well as with the French and Russian powers, would have led to results diametrically opposed to those which have taken place. Previous to Theodore's time-indeed as early as 1849-negotiations were opened between England and Abyssinia, but they led to few results; and it was only when the powerful mind of the young usurper took hold of the matter, that it began to assume moment. Yet his manner of going to work was wholly wrong. He knew the greatness of the European powers only partially; at any rate, he overrated his own, and in writing to Queen Victoria, in 1862, his language was so strongly steeped in oriental arrogance as to make him the jest of all Europe. Yet it is not to be overlooked, in America at least, that the mistake which Theodore committed was not greater than Victoria's, in not replying. He overrated himself, his kingly importance, and the relation of Abyssinia to the rest of the world. He showed the want of travel, and of that culture which lets men see the perspective of national importance. And it was only natural. How should he, a meanly educated African prince, know better? He saw that the arts of England were good, and that her manufactures were very desirable, but he could not know the weight of her gloved hand, nor the power of her armaments. It has been stated in a prominent American journal, that he went so far as to propose terms of marriage to Queen Victoria, but this