ments are a conjurer's trick. But for the moral law, there would be no escape. Oh, listen to Scripture!
Each transitory day, O man,
To moral living give;
Else, like the blacksmith's bellows, you
Suck air, but do not live.
And furthermore:
Non-moral learning is a curse,
A dog's tail, nothing less,
That does not save from flies and fleas,
Nor cover nakedness.
And yet again:
A rotten ear among the wheat,
Among the birds a bat,
Is he who spurns the moral law;
The merest living gnat.
The flowers and fruit are better than the tree;
Better than curds is butter said to be;
Better than oil-cake, oil that trickles free;
Better than mortal man, morality.
The praise of constant steadfastness
Some wise professors sing;
But moral earnestness is swift,
Though many fetters cling.
Forget your prosings manifold;
The moral law is briefly told:
To help your neighbor—this is good;
To injure him is devilhood."
Having listened to this moral discourse, the rabbit said: "Friend partridge, here on the river-bank is
