JUPITER AND THE HERDSMAN.
A Herdsman missing a young heifer, went up and down the forest to seek it; and having walked over a great deal of ground to no purpose, he fell a praying to Jupiter for relief, promising to sacrifice a kid to him, if he would help him to a discovery of the thief. After this he went on a little farther, and came near a grove of oaks, where he espied the carcase of his heifer, and a Lion growling over it, and feeding upon it. This sight almost scared him out of his wits; so down he fell upon his knees once more, and addressing himself to Jupiter, O Jupiter, says he, I promised thee a kid to shew me the thief; but now I promise thee a bull, if thou wilt be so merciful as to deliver me out of his clutches.
APPLICATION.
We ought never to supplicate the Divine power, but through motives of religion and virtue. Prayers dictated by blind self-interest, or to gratify some misguided passion, cannot, it is presumed, be acceptable to the Deity; and of all the involuntary sins which men commit, scarcely any are more frequent than their praying absurdly and improperly, as well as unseasonably, when their time might have been employed to a better purpose. Would men, as they ought to do, obey the commands of Omnipotence, by fulfilling their moral duties, and endeavour with all their might to live as justly as they can, a just Providence would give them what they ought to have: but stupidity and ignorance, until better informed, and divested of superstition and bigotry, will continue to form their notions of the Supreme Being from their own poor shallow conceptions; and nothing contributes more to keep up this injudicious practice among simple, but perhaps well-meaning people, than the numerous collections of those crude rhapsodies, the offspring of itinerant bigotry, with which the country overflows; while most of those prayers are neglected which have been composed with due reflection and matured deliberation, by the most learned and pious of men. This Fable also teaches us, that frequently the gratification of our vain prayers would only lead us into dangers and evils, of the existence of which we had no previous suspicion.