THE CROW AND THE PITCHER.
A Crow, ready to die with thirst, flew with joy to a Pitcher which he beheld at some distance. When he came, he found water in it, indeed, but so near the bottom, that with all his stooping and straining, he was not able to reach it. He then endeavoured to overturn the Pitcher, that at least he might be able to get a little of it; but his strength was not sufficient for the accomplishment of this purpose. At last seeing some pebbles lie near the place, he cast them one by one into the Pitcher, and thus, by degrees, raised the water up to the very brim, and satisfied his thirst.
APPLICATION.
What we cannot accomplish by strength, we may by ingenuity and industry. A man of sagacity and penetration, upon meeting with a few difficulties, does not drop his pursuits, but if he cannot succeed in one way, sets his mind to work upon another, and does not hesitate about stepping out of the old beaten track which had been thoughtlessly pursued in a roundabout way by thousands before him. The present state of the world, enlightened by arts and sciences, is a proof that difficulties seemingly unsurmountable, and undertakings once imagined to be impossible, have been accomplished; and this ought to be kept in mind as a spur to continued exertion: for we are not acquainted with the strength of our own minds till we exercise them, nor to what length our abilities will carry us, till we put them to the trial.
“What is discovered only serves to shew,
That nothing’s known to what is yet to know.”
The man who enriches the present fund of knowledge with some new and useful improvement, does an honour to himself, and ought invariably to be rewarded by the public: for, like a happy adventurer by sea, he discovers as it were an unknown land, and imports an additional treasure to his own country.
