We should believe that under every stone a scorpion may be lodged, which seems to be the sense of the adage; and it is intended to admonish us in all business to aet with deliberation and caution, that we may not involve ourselves in troubles and dangers; particularly we should set a guard over our tongues and not be too communicative, lest we should instruct others in any plans we may have formed for the advancement of our affairs, who may thence be enabled to become our rivals, and prevent the completion of our designs: or by speaking too freely of the concerns of others excite enmities which may be productive of consequences still more mischievous. "Volto sciolto," the Italians say, "i pensieri stretti," be free and open in your countenance and address, but cautious and reserved in your communications. There are many other similar cautions; "Latet anguis in herba," there is a snake in the grass, take care how you tread. "Debaxo de la miel, ay hiel," under the honey you may find gall. "Paredes tien oydos," and "tras pared, ni tras seto, no digas tu secreto." "Walls have ears," be cautious what you say; and "little pitchers have long ears." Children, even when playing about you, are often more attentive to what you are saying, then to their own amusement. "Dizen los ninos en el solejar, lo que oyen a sus padres en el hogar," they tell when abroad, what they hear their parents saying by the fireside. In the countries where scorpions breed, they are frequently found lying unders stones, as worms are in this country; any one therefore incautiously removing a stone, under which one of these venemous reptiles may happen to lie, will be in danger of being stung by the enraged animal, whence the proverb.

He hath brought this mischief upon himself. "He hath pulled an old house about his ears." Why would he interfere in a business in which he had no concern? He should have remembered that, "He that meddleth with strife that doth not belong to him, is like one that taketh a mad dog by the ear."

You are preaching to the deaf; to prepossessed and prejudiced ears; to presons so besotted and addicted to their vices, that they will not listen to you, though your advice be most suitable to them, and such as they cannot reject, but to their manifest disadvantage. "They are like to the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears, and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely." As the following narrative seems to give an ingenious explanation of this passage in the Psalms, it is here added. "There is a kind of snake in India," Mr. Forbes says, in his Oriental Memoirs, lately published, "which is called the dancing snake. They are carried in baskets throughout Hindostan, and procure a maintenance for a set of people, who play a few simple notes on the flute, with which the snakes seem much delighted, and keep time by a graceful motion of the head, erecting about half their length from the ground, and following the music with gentle curves, like the undulating lines of a swan's neck. It is a well attested fact, that when a house is infested with these snakes, and some others of the coluber genus, which destroy poultry, and small domestic animals, as also by the larger serpents of the boa tribe, the musicians are sent for, who, by playing on a flageolet, find out their hiding places, and charm them to destruction; for no sooner do the snakes hear the music, than they come from their retreat, and are easily taken. I imagine," Mr. Forbes says, "that these musical snakes were known in Palestine, from the Psalmist comparing the ungodly to the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears, and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. When the music ceaseth, the snakes appear motionless, but if not immediately covered up in the basket, the spectators are liable to fatal accidents. Among my drawings is that of a cobra de capello, which danced for an hour on the table, while I painted it, during which I frequently handled it, to observe the beauty of the spots, and especially the spectacles on the hood, not doubting but that its venemous fangs had been previously extracted. But the next morning I was informed by my servant, that while purchasing some fruit, he observed the man who had been with me the preceding evening, entertaining the country people, who were sitting on the ground around him, with his dancing snakes, when the animal that I had so often handled, darted suddenly at the throat of a young woman, and inflicted a wound, of which she died in about half an hour."

We each of us think, that whatever we possess, whether children, horses, dogs, houses, or any other things, are better than those of our neighbours, "all our geese are swans." Or, as a common adage has it, "Every crow thinks her own bird fair." This disposition, when not carried to excess, is rather to be encouraged than reproved, as tending to make us contented and happy, in our situations; indulged too much, it occasions our becoming dupes to sycophants and flatterers. None fall so easily under the influence of this prejudice, as poets, orators, and artisans, who are generally as much enamoured with their own productions, as lovers are with the charms of their mistresses. "Nemo unquam, neque poeta, neque orator fuit, qui quenquam meliorem se arbitraretur," there never was poet, or orator, Cicero says, who thought any other superior to himself in his art, nor any lover who did not find more beauty in his mistress than in any other woman.