This test of a virtuous woman being easy to display to the public, it is not extraordinary that it should be a favorite one.

But, without proceeding further, it is evident that, at the present day, virtuous women, instead of being as scarce as in the days of Solomon, are quite as plenty as is necessary and, convenient for the supply of the wants of the community; and an inquiry like that at the head of this chapter would not now tend to increase any man's reputation for wisdom.

OLD FABLES NEWLY TRANSLATED FROM ESOP AND OTHER FABULISTS.

FABLE I.

THE SUN AND THE WIND.

PHŒBUS one day becoming tired of driving his team over the old road among the rams, bulls, goats, &c., of the Zodiac, determined to take a little relaxation on the earth. So, giving the ribbons to his boy, he came down and took a walk up Broadway. Passing by Cromwell's, he saw his old crony, Eolus, sitting, puffing his segar among the philosophers who are accustomed on pleasant days to assemble there, and immediately joined him, and took

A seat and segar 'mid the jovial throng."

The two Olympians soon began to brag, like Kentuckians, of the superiority of their country to the one in which they were and every other; of their great characters, and finally of themselves. Until they came to this last point, their conversation had little interest for the want of opposition; but upon this subject they soon began to wax warm. Eolus, who had had a complete blow-out the night before, had not cooled off yet, and being naturally as remarkable for coarse and rough manners as his companion for the reverse, began boasting of his superiority to Mars and all the other Olympians, and, finally, to Jupiter himself.

"I acknowledge," says Phœbus, "that you are a powerful fel

low, and, when you set about it, can do a great deal of mischief; but excuse me--I think that Jupiter, or Mars, or even my humble self, is, at least, a match for you-and more too."

"What! Mars or you!—you!! a match for me!!! why I'll bet you a beaver hat I can lick Mars and you both, and let Jupiter thump me with his thunderbolts all the while."

"Well," says Phoebus, "there's a wide difference of opinion between us on this subject; we can't among genteel people, such as we are among here, decide a bet by fisticuffs-but I'll go you the beaver hat, and a supper of oysters to boot, that I can take away that cloak from Dick Roughhead yonder, and that you can't, and you may take the first trial."

"Done," says Eolus, " and here goes."

And away he went puffing and blowing, like a steam-engine letting off her steam, against Dick, who had just been wishing that he had left his cloak at home, but now congratulated himself on his prudence in wearing it: and as soon as he felt Eolus's blows, wrapped himself up as close and tight as he could. Eolus puffed, and blew, and stormed, and whirled about this way and that way-scattered about the dust and knocked down all the boxes and the goods that were within his reach; but every effort he made only excited Dick to stick closer and hold faster to his cloak. Eolus seized him by the skirts, by the collar, and every other part of the cloak, trying to pull it off, but in vain; Dick stuck to it till he finally tired him out.

"Well,” says he, at last, "I give in: that fellow must be a Kentuckian-he can't be beat, and would n't own it if he was."

"I believe," says Phœbus, "that Dick is, as you say, a Kentuckian, but I can beat him, as you shall see directly."

Whereupon he sent off a bunch of his bright and warm rays directly against Dick's face and eyes, sending them through his hat and cloak, and all his cloathing, and gently and steadily increasing their power, until, although at first pleasant enough, they soon

caused Dick to find the weather disagreeably warm; and as it grew more and more so every minute, he began to alter his opinion in respect to the prudence of having brought his cloak with him.

"Well, really," said he, "here's a sudden change in the weather! I do believe our climate is the most changeable in the world! It must be monstrous unhealthy-no constitution in the world can stand such sudden and violent changes of weather. This confounded cloak is a great plague-I wish I had left it at home-I can't wear it sweating through the streets in this manner. Here, Phœbus, you are going in to Col. Noble's; take this cloak, will you, and leave it there. I can't carry it about town any longer.” "Now," says Phœbus, "do you give in ?”

"I give it up," says Eolus; "and hang me if ever I brag again."

MORAL.

This Fable teaches us that the Chivalry of the Palmetto nation must not expect to carry their points by blustering and bullying: and that their Hammonds, Quattlebums, and M'Duffies, are blowing away the respectability which the mild, gentlemanly, and statesmanlike conduct of their Laurens, Pinckneys, Rutledges, Sumpters, and Marions, and other revolutionary worthies, acquired for South Carolina.

THE COFFEE-HOUSE QUESTION.

"WHY," says the famous old wine-bibber, Anacreon, "should no I drink? The sun drinks, the earth drinks, the sea, and a number of other similar personages, drink; and why should not I, too, drink?" This was one of the coffee-house questions of the ancients, and was doubtless propounded in this form in order that it might be regarded as a poser to the tee-totallers of antiquity. And it has ever since been a favorite question with jolly topers, who appear to think that to propound such a question is as good a justification of drinking as the nature of the case requires: it appears, at least, to be a representative of the best reasons they have to offer on the subject; and when a man offers you the best he has of any thing, he considers it quite churlish if you make any exceptions to it.

But the coffee-house question, par excellence, is one of modern times, which at every city election is brought before the city electors for their consideration; and although we are obliged to wait for their answer until the smoke of the political battle has been blown away; yet we think it not improper to keep up the discussion, not only of the coffee-house question, but of several other coffee-house questions which we ask, not so much for the purpose of ascertaining whether an individual may drink or not, as for that of discovering how far he has the right and power to make other people pay such enormous sums as they regularly do for his drinking.