thing, or that thing? Why it is often one part of wisdom to see that
you can't understand a particular subject, and another part of wisdom
to confess that you can't understand it.

I think that the dog, who figures with a certain vain, self-conceited
monkey, in the fable, showed a good deal of wisdom in his remarks.

The monkey, you must know, belonged to a very learned astronomer. The
animal often watched his master, while he was looking through his
telescope. "There must be something delightful in that," he thought,
and one day, when the astronomer was absent, the monkey looked through
the instrument for a long time. But he saw nothing strange or
wonderful; and so he concluded that his master was a fool, and that
the telescope was all nonsense. Not long after that, he met Rover,
the family dog, and he told him what he thought of his master. "And
what do _you_ think of the matter, friend Rover?" he added.

"I don't know the use of the telescope," said the dog, "and I don't
know how wise our master may be. But I am satisfied of two things."

"What are they?" the monkey asked.

"First," said the dog, "that telescopes were not made for monkeys to
look through; and second, that monkeys were not made to look through
telescopes."




[Illustration: THE LEARNED GEESE.]