{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_42761/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_42761","id":"gutenberg_42761","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42761","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Didactic literature -- History and criticism","Fables -- History and criticism"],"text":"_FABLES AND FABULISTS._\n\n\n\n\n[Device]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: MERCURY BESTOWING ON THE YOUTHFUL \u00c6SOP THE INVENTION OF\nTHE APOLOGUE. (_See page 43._)]\n\n\n\n\n                     FABLES AND FABULISTS:\n                     _ANCIENT AND MODERN_.\n\n\n                               BY\n                       THOMAS NEWBIGGING,\n                           _Author of\n 'The History of the Forest of Rossendale,' 'Old Gamul,' etc._\n\n\n                        _CHEAP EDITION._\n\n\n                            LONDON:\n            ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.\n                             1896.\n\n                    [_All rights reserved._]\n\n\n\n\n                        'I shall tell you\n    A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;\n    But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture\n    To stale't a little more.'\n\n                                      SHAKESPEARE: _Coriolanus_.\n\n\n    'He sat among the woods; he heard\n      The sylvan merriment; he saw\n    The pranks of butterfly and bird,\n      The humours of the ape, the daw.\n\n    'And in the lion or the frog--\n      In all the life of moor and fen,\n    In ass and peacock, stork and log,\n      He read similitudes of men.'\n\n                          ANDREW LANG.\n\n\n    'The fables which appeal to our higher moral sympathies may\n    sometimes do as much for us as the truths of science.'\n\n                                                  MRS. JAMESON.\n\n\n    'The years of infancy constitute, in the memory of each of us, the\n    fabulous season of existence; just as in the memory of nations,\n    the fabulous period was the period of their infancy.'--GIACOMO\n    LEOPARDI.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n CHAPTER                                               PAGE\n\n    I. DEFINITION OF FABLE                                1\n\n   II. CHARACTERISTICS OF FABLES                          7\n\n  III. THE MORAL AND APPLICATION OF FABLES               13\n\n   IV. FABULISTS AS CENSORS                              19\n\n    V. LESSONS TAUGHT BY FABLES                          25\n\n   VI. \u00c6SOP                                              33\n\n  VII. STORIES RELATED OF \u00c6SOP                           42\n\n VIII. THE \u00c6SOPIAN FABLES                                52\n\n   IX. PH\u00c6DRUS AND BABRIUS                               63\n\n    X. THE FABLE IN HISTORY AND MYTH                     68\n\n   XI. HINDOO, ARABIAN, AND PERSIAN FABLES.--PILPAY,\n       LOCMAN.--'THE GESTA ROMANORUM'                    80\n\n  XII. MODERN FABULISTS: LA FONTAINE, GAY                96\n\n XIII. MODERN FABULISTS: DODSLEY, NORTHCOTE             108\n\n  XIV. MODERN FABULISTS: LESSING, YRIARTE, KRILOF       115\n\n   XV. OTHER AND OCCASIONAL FABULISTS                   125\n\n  XVI. CONCLUSION                                       143\n\n       INDEX                                            147\n\n\n\n\n_FABLES AND FABULISTS_\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nDEFINITION OF FABLE.\n\n\n    'Read my little fable,\n    He that runs may read.'\n\n                  TENNYSON: _The Flower_.\n\n\n    'As clear as a whistle.'\n\n                      BYRON: _The Astrologer_.\n\n\nThe term 'fable' is used in two senses, with two distinctive meanings.\n\nFirst, as _fabul\u00e6_, it is employed to denote the myths or fictions\nwhich, by the aid of imagination and superstition, have clouded, or\nhave become blended with, the history of the remote past. Such are the\nstories related of Scandinavian and Grecian heroes and gods; beings,\nsome of whom doubtless had an actual human existence, and were wise and\nvaliant and powerful, or the reverse, in their day, but around whose\nnames and persons have clustered all the marvellous legends that are to\nbe found in mythological lore. The better name for these is 'romance.'\n\nSecondly, as _fabell\u00e6_, it is used to signify a special branch of\nliterature, in which the imagination has full play, altogether\nunassisted by superstition in any shape or form. The fabulist\nconfers the powers or gifts of reason and speech on the humbler\nsubjects over whom he exercises sway, and so has ample scope for his\nimaginative faculty; but there is no attempt on his part at any serious\nmake-believe in his inventions. On the contrary, there is a tacit\nunderstanding between him and his hearers and readers, that what he\nnarrates is only true in the sense of its application to corresponding\ncircumstances in human life and conduct.\n\nIt is with fable as understood in this latter sense that we propose to\ndeal.\n\nThe Fable or Apologue has been variously defined by different writers.\nMr. Walter Pater, paraphrasing Plato's definition, says that 'fables\nare medicinable lies or fictions, with a provisional or economized\ntruth in them, set forth under such terms as simple souls can best\nreceive.'[1] The sophist Aphthonius, taking the same view, defines the\nfable as 'a false discourse resembling truth.'[2] The harshness of both\nthese definitions is scarcely relieved by their quaintness. To assert\nthat the fable is a lie or a falsehood does not fairly represent the\nfact. A lie is spoken with intent to deceive. A fable, in its relation,\ncan bear no such construction, however exaggerated in its terms or\nfictitious in its characters. The meanest comprehension is capable of\ngrasping the humour of the situation it creates. Even the moral that\nlurks in the narration is often clear to minds the most obtuse. This is\nat least true of the best fables.\n\nDr. Johnson, in his 'Life of Gay,' remarks that 'A fable or epilogue\nseems to be, in its genuine state, a narrative in which beings\nirrational, and sometimes inanimate--_quod arbores loquantur, non\ntantum fer\u00e6_[3]--are, for the purpose of moral instruction, feigned to\nact and speak with human interests and passions.'\n\nDodsley says that ''tis the very essence of a fable to convey some\nmoral or useful truth beneath the shadow of an allegory.'[4] Boothby\ndefines the fable as 'a maxim for the use of common life, exemplified\nin a short action, in which the inhabitants of the visible world are\nmade the moral agents.' G. Moir Bussey states that 'the object of the\nauthor is to convey some moral truth to the reader or auditor, without\nusurping the province of the professed lecturer or pedant. The lesson\nmust therefore be conveyed in an agreeable form, and so that the\nmoralist himself may be as little prominent as possible.'[5] Mr. Joseph\nJacobs says that 'the beast fable may be defined as a short humorous\nallegorical tale, in which animals act in such a way as to illustrate a\nsimple moral truth or inculcate a wise maxim.'[6]\n\nThese various definitions or descriptions apply more especially to the\n\u00c6sopian fable (and it is with this that we are dealing at present),\nwhich is _par excellence_ the model of this class of composition.\nSteele declares that 'the virtue which we gather from a fable or an\nallegory is like the health we get by hunting, as we are engaged in\nan agreeable pursuit that draws us on with pleasure, and makes us\ninsensible of the fatigues that accompany it.'[7] This is applied to\nthe longer fable or epic, such as the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' of Homer,\nor the 'Faerie Queen' of Spenser, rather than to the fable as the term\nis generally understood, otherwise the simile is somewhat inflated.\n\nOne more definition may be attempted:\n\nThe \u00c6sopian fable or apologue is a short story, either fictitious or\ntrue, generally fictitious, calculated to convey instruction, advice or\nreproof, in an interesting form, impressing its lesson on the mind more\ndeeply than a mere didactic piece of counsel or admonition is capable\nof doing. We say a short story, because if the narration is spun out\nto a considerable length it ceases to be a true fable in the ordinary\nacceptation of the term, and becomes a tale, such, for example, as a\nfairy tale. Now, a fairy or other fanciful tale usually or invariably\ncontains some romance and much improbability; it often deals largely in\nthe superstitious, and it is not necessarily the vehicle for conveying\na moral. The very opposite holds good of a fable. Although animals\nare usually the actors in the fable, there is an air of naturalness\nin their assumed speech and actions. The story may be either highly\nimaginative or baldly matter-of-fact, but it never wanders beyond the\nrange of intuitive (as opposed to actual or natural) experience, and\nit always contains a moral. In a word, a fable is, or ought to be, the\nvery quintessence of common sense and wise counsel couched in brief\nnarrative form. It partakes somewhat of the character of a parable,\nthough it can hardly be described as a parable, because this is more\nsedate in character, has human beings as its actors, and is usually\nbased on an actual occurrence.\n\nThough parables are not fables in the strict and limited meaning of the\nterm, they bear a close family relationship to them. Parables may be\ndefined as stories in allegorical dress. The Scriptures, both old and\nnew, abound with them. The most beautiful example in the Old Testament\nis that of Nathan and the ewe lamb,[8] in which David the King is made\nhis own accuser. This was a favourite mode of conveying instruction and\nreproof employed by our Lord. Christ often 'spake in parables'; and\nwith what feelings of reverential awe must we regard the parables of\nthe Gospels, coming as they did from the lips of our Saviour!\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] 'Plato and Platonism,' by Walter Pater. London: Macmillan and Co.,\n1893, p. 225.\n\n[2] Aphthonius flourished at Antioch, at what time is uncertain. Forty\nof his \u00c6sopian fables, with a Latin version by Kimedoncius, were\nprinted from a MS. in the Palatine Library at the beginning of the\nseventeenth century. 'The \u00c6sopian Fable,' by Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart.\nEdinburgh: Constable and Co., 1809. Preface, p. xxxi.\n\n[3] 'Even trees speak, not only wild beasts.'--Ph\u00e6drus, Book i.,\nPrologue.\n\n[4] 'Essay on Fable.'\n\n[5] 'Fables Original and Selected,' by G. Moir Bussey. London:\nWilloughby and Co., 1842.\n\n[6] 'The Fables of \u00c6sop,' as first printed by William Caxton in 1484.\nLondon: David Nutt, 1889, vol. i., p. 204.\n\n[7] 'The Tatler,' No. 147, vol. iii., p. 205.\n\n[8] 2 Samuel xii. 1-7.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nCHARACTERISTICS OF FABLES.\n\n\n    'To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature.'\n\n                                      SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet_.\n\n\nThere is an archness about the best fables that creates interest and\nawakens curiosity; and it is the quality of such that, whilst simple\nenough as stories to be understood and enjoyed by the young, they are\nat the same time calculated to interest, amuse, instruct and admonish\nthose more advanced in years.\n\nA fable should carry its moral without the telling; nevertheless the\napplication is often worth supplying, because it puts, or should put,\nthe lesson taught by the fable in a terse and impressive form. Above\nand beyond all, a fable should possess the quality of simplicity, and\nwhilst easy to be understood, it should have force and appropriateness.\n\nFables treat of the follies and weaknesses, and also of the nobler\nqualities, of humankind, generally through the medium of the lower\nanimals and the members of the vegetable and natural kingdom. These are\nmade to represent the characters we find in human life. Curious, that\nalthough it is chiefly the lower animals and inanimate things that are\nmade the vehicle of the instruction or reproof contained in the story,\nwe do not feel that there is any incongruity in these having the power\nof speech. We willingly accept the circumstance of their faculty of\nspeech and reasoning as Gospel truth for the time being. It is natural\nthat they in the fable should speak as the heroes or actors, and we\nlisten to their words, whether wise or foolish, with deference or\ncontempt as the case may be.\n\nIt is a question in casuistry how far justice and injustice are done to\nthe inferior animals and the members of the vegetable kingdom by this\nliberty that is taken with them in the fable. If they had the knowledge\nof the fact, and the power of remonstrance, it may be conceived that\nsome of them, at least, would repudiate the characters and propensities\nwhich we in our superior conceit so glibly ascribe to them in the\nfable. And, indeed, there is doubtless a good deal of unfairness\nin our habit of stigmatizing this one with cunning, that one with\ncowardice, and the other with cruelty, or stupidity, or dishonesty,\nas suits our purpose. Possibly if some of the humbler creatures thus\nbranded were gifted with the power of writing fables for the benefit of\n_their_ fellow creatures and associates, they might be able to point\nto characteristics in the higher order of beings which it is desirable\nto hold in reprobation, and this, too, with as much or more reason\nand justice on their side than we have on ours. But, in truth, the\nfabulists themselves tacitly admit the force of this argument, inasmuch\nas the failings and defects and general qualities which they ascribe to\nthe characters in the fable are, of course, those of the human species.\nA fable of \u00c6sop, _The Man and the Lion_,[9] is very much to the point\nhere:\n\n'Once upon a time a man and a lion were journeying together, and came\nat length to high words which was the braver and stronger of the two.\nAs the dispute waxed warmer they happened to pass by, on the road-side,\na statue of a man strangling a lion. \"See there,\" said the man; \"what\nmore undeniable proof can you have of our superiority than that?\"\n\"That,\" said the lion, \"is your version of the story; let us be the\nsculptors, and for one lion under the feet of a man, you shall have\ntwenty men under the paw of a lion!\" Men are but sorry witnesses in\ntheir own cause.'\n\nA fable is generally a fiction, as has already been said. It is a\nsingular paradox, however, that nothing is truer than a good fable.\nTrue to intuition, true to nature, true to fact. The great virtue of\nfables consists in this quality of truthfulness, and their enduring\nlife and popularity are corroboration of it. If not true in the sense\nof being reasonable, they are nothing, or foolish, and therefore\nintolerable. We instinctively feel their truth, and are encouraged,\nor amused, or conscience-smitten by the narration, for they deal with\nprinciples which lie at the very root of our human nature.\n\nIt is a remarkable feature of this species of composition that a\ndeparture from the natural order of things loses its incongruity in\nthe fable; and although this view has been controverted, the argument\nagainst it fails to carry conviction in face of the excellent examples\nthat can be adduced. By way of illustration, take the fable of the\nman and his goose that laid the golden eggs. We don't remember ever\nmeeting with a goose of this particular breed out of the fable. There\nare numberless geese in the world--human and other. But the goose that\nlays a golden egg every morning is a _rara avis_. Nevertheless, she\nhas a veritable existence in the fable, and we would as soon think of\ncasting a doubt on our own identity as on that of the fabled bird. The\nstory has always been, and will continue to be, Gospel truth to us, and\nwe never recall it without commiserating the untimely end of the poor\nobliging goose, and thinking, at the same time, what a goose its owner\nmust have been to kill it and cut it up, in expectation of finding in\nits inside the inexhaustible treasure his impatient greed had pictured\nas existing there. _Semper avarus eget._ Had _we_ been the fortunate\nowner of such an uncommon fowl, one golden egg each day would have\ncontented us!\n\nCertain early authors, with the formalism which characterizes their\nwritings, have attempted an arrangement of fables under three\ndistinct heads or classes, designating them, respectively, Rational,\nEmblematical, and Mixed. The Rational fable is held to be that in which\nthe actors are either human beings or the gods of mythology; or, if\nbeasts, birds, trees, and inanimate objects are introduced, the former\nonly are the speakers. The Emblematical fable has animals, members of\nthe vegetable kingdom, and even inanimate things for its heroes, and\nthese are accordingly gifted with the power of speech. The Mixed fable,\nas the name implies, is that in which an association of the two former\nkinds is to be found. The distinction, though perfectly accurate,\nserves no useful purpose and need not be observed. As a matter of fact,\nall fables are rational or reasonable from the fabulist's stand-point;\nand all are emblematical or typical of moods, conditions, and possible\nor actual occurrences in daily life, whoever and whatever be the actors\nand speakers introduced.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[9] Quoted from James's 'Fables of \u00c6sop.' Murray, 1848.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE MORAL AND APPLICATION OF FABLES.\n\n\n    'Come, sir, lend it your best ear.'\n\n                            BEN JONSON: _Love Freed_.\n\n\nThus La Fontaine:[10] 'The fable proper is composed of two parts, of\nwhich one may be termed the body and the other the soul. The body is\nthe subject-matter of the fable and the soul is the moral.'\n\nOn the origin of the added morals to fables, Mr. Joseph Jacobs[11]\nhas the following appropriate remarks: 'The fable is a species of the\nallegory, and it seems absurd to give your allegory, and then give in\naddition the truth which you wish to convey. Either your fable makes\nits point or it does not. If it does, you need not repeat your point:\nif it does not, you need not give your fable. To add your point is\npractically to confess the fear that your fable has not put it with\nsufficient force. Yet this is practically what the moral does, which\nhas now become part and parcel of a fable. It was not always so; it\ndoes not occur in the ancient classical fables. That it is not an\norganic part of the fable is shown by the curious fact that so many\nmorals miss the point of the fables. How then did this artificial\nproduct come to be regarded as an essential part of the fable? Now,\nwe have seen in the J\u0101takas what an important _r\u00f4le_ is played by\nthe _g\u0101thas_ or moral verses which sum up the whole teaching of\nthe J\u0101takas. In most cases I have been able to give the pith of\nthe Birth-stories by merely giving the _g\u0101thas_, which are besides\nthe only relics which are now left to us of the original form of the\nJ\u0101takas. Is it too bold to suggest that any set of fables taken from\nthe J\u0101takas or their source would adopt the _g\u0101tha_ feature, and\nthat the moral would naturally arise in this way? We find the moral\nfully developed in Babrius and Avian, whom we have seen strong reason\nfor connecting with Kybises' Libyan fables. We may conclude the series\nof conjectures by suggesting that the morals of fables are an imitation\nof the _g\u0101thas_ of J\u0101takas as they passed into the Libyan collection\nof Kybises.'\n\nMontaigne remarks that 'most of the fables of \u00c6sop have diverse senses\nand meanings, of which the mythologists chose some one that quadrates\nwell to the fable; but for the most part 'tis but the first face that\npresents itself and is superficial only; there yet remain others more\nvivid, essential and profound into which they have not been able to\npenetrate.'[12]\n\nIf this be so, it is an argument against the common practice of\nlimiting their significance to the one moral that is often given as an\nappendage to the fable. It is worthy of note that \u00c6sop did not supply,\neither orally or in writing, the separate moral to any of his fables.\nThey were left to speak for themselves and produce their unaided\neffect. The moral or application appended to or introducing a fable\n(for both practices are followed), is an innovation, as appears from\nwhat has already been advanced, probably intended to make clear what\nwas obscure in the apologue.\n\nThe true moral is contained in the fable itself. The application may,\nand often does, vary with the idiosyncrasies of the commentator.\nBesides the moral and application there is in some collections of\nfables what is designated 'The Remark,' and 'The Reflection,' in which\nthe commentator tries, as it were, to drive home the application of the\nstory with an additional blow. Our own experience as a youth was that\nall these appendages to the fable were invariably skipped.\n\nFrom all which it would appear that the moral and the so-called\napplication of a fable are not one and the same thing. In point of\nfact, the latter may and does vary according to the peculiar views\nof the commentator. An exemplification of this may be found in the\napplications of Sir Roger L'Estrange and Dr. Samuel Croxall, the\nlatter taking it upon him to stigmatize in strong language the twist\nwhich he asserted the former gave to the morals of the fables in his\ncollection. L'Estrange, who was a Catholic, concerned himself in\nhelping the restoration of Charles II., and was a devoted adherent\nof his successor, James, from whom he received place and emoluments.\nIn publishing his version of \u00c6sop, his object, as he affirms in his\npreface, was to influence the minds of the rising generation, 'who\nbeing as it were mere blank paper, are ready indifferently for any\nopinion, good or bad, taking all upon credit.' Whereupon Croxall\nobserves: 'What poor devils would L'Estrange make of the children who\nshould be so unfortunate as to read his book and imbibe his pernicious\nprinciples--principles coined and suited to promote the growth and\nserve the ends of Popery and arbitrary power,' and more to the same\npurpose.\n\nThe question as to whether the moral or application, if any is\nsupplied, should be placed at the beginning or end of a fable has\nsometimes been discussed. On this head Dodsley has some pertinent\nremarks that may be quoted. He says: 'It has been matter of dispute\nwhether the moral is better introduced at the end or beginning of a\nfable. \u00c6sop universally rejected any separate moral. Those we now find\nat the close of his fables were placed there by other hands. Among the\nancients Ph\u00e6drus, and Gay among the moderns, inserted theirs at the\nbeginning; La Motte prefers them at the conclusion, and La Fontaine\ndisposes them indifferently at the beginning or end, as he sees\nconvenient. If,' he adds, 'amidst the authority of such great names I\nmight venture to mention my own opinion, I should rather prefer them\nas an introduction than add them as an appendage. For I would neither\npay my reader nor myself so bad a compliment as to suppose, after he\nhad read the fable, that he was not able to discover its meaning.\nBesides, when the moral of a fable is not very prominent and striking,\na leading thought at the beginning puts the reader in a proper track.\nHe knows the game which he pursues; and, like a beagle on a warm scent,\nhe follows the sport with alacrity in proportion to his intelligence.\nOn the other hand, if he have no previous intimation of the design, he\nis puzzled throughout the fable, and cannot determine upon its merit\nwithout the trouble of a fresh perusal. A ray of light imparted at\nfirst may show him the tendency and propriety of every expression\nas he goes along; but while he travels in the dark, no wonder if he\nstumble or mistake his way.' If it be considered necessary or desirable\nto give the moral separately, or to apply the fable, Dodsley's argument\nhere seems to us to be incontrovertible.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[10] Preface, 'Fables,' 1668.\n\n[11] 'History of the \u00c6sopic Fable,' p. 148.\n\n[12] Essay: 'Of Books.'\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nFABULISTS AS CENSORS.\n\n\n    'Mark, now, how a plain tale shall put you down.'\n\n                                        SHAKESPEARE: _King Henry IV_.\n\n\nFabulists as censors have always been not only tolerated, but\npatronized and encouraged, even in the most despotic countries, and\nwhen they have exposed wickedness and folly in high places with an\nunsparing hand. \u00c6sop among the ancients, and Krilof amongst the\nmoderns, are both striking examples of this. The fables of antiquity\nmay indeed be truly said to have been a natural product of the times\nin which they were invented. In the early days, when free speech was\na perilous exercise, and when to declaim against vice and folly was\nto court personal risk, the fable was invented, or resorted to, by\nthe moralist as a circuitous method of achieving the end he desired\nto reach--the lesson he wished to enforce. The entertainment afforded\nby the fable or apologue took off the keen edge of the reproof; and,\nwhilst the censure conveyed was not less pointed and severe, the device\nof making the humbler creatures the scapegoat of human weakness or vice\nmollified its bitterness. The very indirectness of the fable had the\neffect of making the sinner his own accuser. Whom the cap fitted was at\nliberty to don it.\n\nPh\u00e6drus, in the prologue to his third book, thus gives his view of the\norigin and purpose of fables:\n\n    'Here something shortly I would teach\n    Of fables' origin. To reach\n    The potent criminal, a slave\n    To beasts and birds a language gave.\n    Wishing to strike, and yet afraid,\n    Of these his instruments he made:\n    For all that dove or lamb might say,\n    Against them no indictment lay.'[13]\n\nThe fable saves the self-love of the person to whom it is applicable.\nIt enables him to stand aside, as it were, and become a spectator of\nthe effect produced by his own conduct. In this way he is impressed\nand humbled without being affronted. When one, even though guilty, is\nopenly and directly reproved for a misdeed, the stigma often raises a\nrebellious spirit, which either suggests a hundred justifiable reasons\nfor his action or begets a defiant mood, driving him to persist in his\nevil courses.\n\nListening to the fable, 'we see nothing of the satirist, who probes\nonly to heal us, and who does not exhibit any of the personal spleen\nand ill-humour which meet and put us out of countenance with ourselves\nand each other in the invectives of those who sometimes set up for\nmoralists without the essential qualification of good nature. The\nfable gives an agreeable hint of the duties and relations of life,\nnot a harangue on our want of sense or decorum. We feel none of the\nsuperiority of the fabulist, who, indeed, generally leaves us to make\nthe application of his instructive story in our own way; and if we do\nsometimes prefer to apply it to our neighbour's case instead of our\nown, we are still improved and amended, inasmuch as we have learned to\ndespise some vice or folly which our unassisted judgment might have\nregarded more leniently.'[14] Dodsley, again, puts the matter finely\nwhen he says:[15] 'The reason why fable has been so much esteemed\nin all ages and in all countries, is perhaps owing to the polite\nmanner in which its maxims are conveyed. The very article of giving\ninstruction supposes at least a superiority of wisdom in the adviser--a\ncircumstance by no means favourable to the ready admission of advice.\n'Tis the peculiar excellence of fable to waive this air of superiority;\nit leaves the reader to collect the moral, who, by thus discovering\nmore than is shown him, finds his principle of self-love gratified,\ninstead of being disgusted. The attention is either taken off from the\nadviser, or, if otherwise, we are at least flattered by his humility\nand address. Besides, instruction, as conveyed by fable, does not only\nlay aside its lofty mien and supercilious aspect, but appears dressed\nin all the smiles and graces which can strike the imagination or engage\nthe passions. It pleases in order to convince, and it imprints its\nmoral so much the deeper in proportion that it entertains; so that we\nmay be said to feel our duties at the very instant we comprehend them.'\n\nThe humour of a good fable is a fine lubricant to the temper. Sarcasm,\nirony, even direct criticism, are in place in the fable, but humour is\nits saving grace. Without this it cannot be classed in the first order.\nWanting in this quality, the fables of some writers who have attempted\nthem are flat, stale and unprofitable. Humour in the fable is the\ngilding of the pill. It is like the effervescing quality in champagne,\nthe subtle flavour in old port.\n\nIt may be questioned whether a fable has ever the full immediate effect\nintended. Men are loath to apply the moral to their own case, though\nthey have no difficulty in applying it to the case of others--even to\ntheir best acquaintances and friends. For example, take the present\ncompany, the present company of my readers--it is usual, by the way, to\nexcept 'the present company,' but we will be rash enough, even at the\nrisk of castigation, to break the rule--take, then, the present company\nin illustration of our point. Who among us would admit for a moment\nthat we are the counterpart or human representative of the fox with its\nlow cunning, the loquacious jackdaw, the silly goose, the ungrateful\nviper, the crow to be cajoled by flattery, not to mention the egregious\ndonkey? 'Satire,' says an acute writer,[16] 'is a sort of glass\nwherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their\nown.' Or, to parody a line of Young, 'All men think all men peccable\nbut themselves.' To be sure, we might be willing, modestly perhaps,\nto admit that we who are singers can emulate the nightingale; that we\neven possess some of the--call it shrewdness, of the fox; the faithful\ncharacter of the honest dog; vie in dignity of manners and bearing with\nthe stately lion. But all that is a matter of course; the noble traits\nwe possess are so self-evident that none excepting the incorrigibly\nblind or prejudiced will be found to dispute them! So that the\nadmonishing fable contains no lesson for any of us, but should be\nseriously taken to heart, with a view to their reformation, by certain\npersons whom we all know. That view of the question, however, need not\nbe further pursued.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[13] Boothby's translation.\n\n[14] G. Moir Bussey: Introduction to 'Fables.'\n\n[15] 'Essay on Fable.'\n\n[16] Swift: Preface to 'The Battle of the Books.'\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nLESSONS TAUGHT BY FABLES.\n\n\n          'The tale that I relate\n    This lesson seems to carry.'\n\n                          COWPER: _Pairing Time Anticipated_.\n\n\nIn the earlier ages of the world's history fables were invented for\nthe edification of men and women. This was so in the palmiest days of\nGreek, Roman and Arabian or Saracenic civilization. In these later days\nfables are generally assumed to be more for the delectation of children\nthan adults. This change of auditory need not be regretted; it has its\nmarked advantages. The lesson which the fable inculcates is indelibly\nstamped on the mind of the child, and has an influence, less or more,\non his or her career during life.\n\nJean Jacques Rousseau is the only writer of eminence who has inveighed\nagainst this use of the fable, but his remarks are by no means\nconvincing. He accounted them lies without the 'medicinable quality,'\nand reprobated their employment in the instruction of youth. 'Fables,'\nsays Rousseau, 'may amuse men, but the truth must be told to children.'\nHis animadversion had special reference to the fables of La Fontaine,\nand doubtless some of these, and the morals deduced from them, are\nopen to objection; but to condemn fables in general on this account is\nsurely the height of unreason.\n\nA greater than Rousseau had, long before, given expression in cogent\nlanguage to the worth of the fable as a vehicle of instruction for\nyouth. Plato, whilst excluding the mythical stories of Hesiod and Homer\nfrom the curriculum of his 'Republic'--that perfect commonwealth,\nin depicting which he lavished all the resources of his wisdom and\ngenius--advised mothers and nurses to repeat selected fables to their\nchildren, so as to mould and give direction to their young and tender\nminds.\n\nPh\u00e6drus, again, in the prologue to his fables, says--\n\n    ''Tis but a play to form the youth\n    By fiction in the cause of truth,'\n\nso that his view of the question also was just the very antipodes of\nthat of the French philosopher.\n\nQuintilian urges[17] that 'boys should learn to relate orally the\nfables of \u00c6sop, which follow next after the nurse's stories.' True, he\nrecommends this with a view to initiating them in the rudiments of the\nart of speaking; but he would not have inculcated the use of fables for\nchildren for even this secondary purpose, if he had dreamt for a moment\nthey would have had a bad effect on their minds.\n\nRousseau, with all his knowledge of human character and his power of\nimagination, had a matter-of-fact vein running through his mind, which\nled him to entertain the mistaken view that the influence of fables on\nthe juvenile mind was objectionable. Cowper, who was no mean writer of\nfables himself, with his clear common sense, broad natural instincts,\nand mother wit--in which Rousseau was lacking--saw the unwisdom of the\nphilosopher's conclusions, and satirized his views in the well-known\nlines:\n\n    'I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau\n    If birds confabulate or no;\n    'Tis clear that they were always able\n    To hold discourse, at least in fable;\n    And e'en the child, who knows no better\n    Than to interpret by the letter\n    A story of a cock and bull,\n    Must have a most uncommon skull.'[18]\n\nIt is no exaggeration to assert that the effect which fables and their\nlessons have had on the people is incalculable. They have been read\nand rehearsed and pondered in all ages, and by thousands whom no other\nclass of literature could attract. The story and its moral (in the\n\u00c6sopian fable at least) are obvious to the dullest comprehension, and\nthey cling to the memory like the limpet to the rock, and find their\napplication in all the concerns of daily life.\n\nBut it is not the illiterate alone that have profited by the fable;\nall classes have been affected by its lesson. We are all apt scholars\nwhen the fable is the schoolmaster. There is no class of the community\nthat has not come under its sway. It has penetrated to the highest\nstratum of society equally with the humblest, and may be credited with\nan influence as wide and far-reaching as the sublimest moral treatise\nwhich the human intellect has produced.\n\nThe epic and the novel (fables of a kind), like some paintings, cover\na wide canvas, and the details are not always easily grasped and\nremembered; but the true fable is a story in miniature which we take\nin at a glance, and stow away for after use in a small corner of our\nmemory.\n\nWe have the 'successful villain' in the fable as sometimes on the\nstage; and it may be a question whether the tendency of this is not\nrather to encourage dissimulation in certain ill-constituted minds,\nthan to inculcate virtue. One of Northcote's fables, _The Elephant and\nthe Fox_, will exemplify what we mean.\n\n'A grave and judicious elephant entering into argument with a pert fox,\nwho insisted upon his superior powers of persuasion, which the elephant\nwould not allow, it was at length agreed between them that whichever\nattracted the most attention from his auditors by his eloquence should\nbe deemed the victor. At a certain appointed time a great assembly\nof animals attended the trial, and the elephant was allowed to speak\nfirst. He with eloquence spoke of the high importance of ever adhering\nwith strictness to justice and to truth; also of the happiness which\nresulted from controlling the passions, of the dignity of patience, the\ninhospitable and hateful nature of selfishness, and the odiousness of\ncruelty and carnage.\n\n'The pert fox, perceiving the audience not to be much amused by the\ndiscourse of the elephant, made no ceremony, but interrupted the\noration by giving a farcical account of all his mischievous tricks\nand hairbreadth escapes, the success of his cunning, and his adroit\ncontrivances to extricate himself from harm--all which so delighted the\nassembly, that the elephant was soon left, in the midst of his wise\nadvice, without a single auditor near him; for they one and all with\neagerness thronged to hear the diverting follies and knaveries of the\nfox, who, of course, was in the end declared the victor.'\n\nIt might almost appear that a fable of this kind is an error of\njudgment, and that it is calculated to do harm rather than good,\ninasmuch as it exhibits the triumph of duplicity and the defeat of\nwisdom. True, the author of the fable tries to recover the lost ground\nin the application, by mildly holding up the fox to reprobation, thus:\n\n'Application: The effect these two orators had on the perceptions of\ntheir audience was exactly the reverse one to the other. That of the\nelephant touched the guilty, like satire, with pain and reproach; even\nthe most innocent was humbled, as none were wholly free from vice, and\nall felt themselves lowered even in their own opinion, and heard the\nadmonition as an irksome duty, but still with little inclination to\nundergo the difficult task of amendment. But when the fox began, all\nwas joy; the innocent felt all the gratification which proceeds from\nthe consciousness of superiority, and the guilty to find their vices\nand follies treated only as a jest; for we all have felt how much more\npleasure we enjoy laughing at a fool than in being scrutinized by the\nsage. From this cause it is that farce of the most grotesque and absurd\nkind is tolerated and received, and not without some degree of relish,\neven by the good and the wise, as we all want comfort.'\n\nIn spite of the application--nay, rather to some extent by reason of\nit, for the anti-climax is extraordinary in a fable--it may be doubted\nwhether our sympathies are not with the fox rather than with the\nelephant. We feel that the latter, with all his wisdom and good advice,\nis somewhat of a bore; whilst the fox, rake and wastrel though he be,\nhas that touch of nature that makes him kin.\n\n\u00c6sop's well-known fable of _The Fox and the Crow_ is also an example of\nthe success of the scoundrel, but mark the difference: here there is\nthe obvious reproof of the vain and silly bird, deceived by flattering\nwords, till, in attempting to sing, she drops into the mouth of the fox\nthe savoury morsel she held in her beak! Here our verdict is: 'Served\nher right!' In Northcote's fable, clever though it is as a narration,\nthis climax is altogether wanting.\n\nIt has been suggested that there is a closer natural affinity than at\nfirst sight appears between man and the lower animals, and that the\nrecognition of this contact at many points would suggest the idea of\nconferring the power of speech upon the latter in the fable. In the\nhigher reason and its resultant effects they differ fundamentally; mere\nanimals are wanting discourse of reason, but the purely animal passions\nof cunning, anger, hatred, and even revenge and love of kind, and the\nnobler characteristics of faithfulness and gratitude prevail in the\ndispositions of both. These similarities would strike observers in the\npastoral ages of the world with even greater force than in later times.\n\nThe ineradicable impression which certain fables have made upon\nthe mind through uncounted generations by their self-evident\nappropriateness and truth, is well exemplified in _The Wolf and the\nLamb_; _The Fox and the Grapes_; _The Hare and the Tortoise_; _The Dog\nand the Shadow_; _The Mountain in Labour_; _The Fox without a Tail_;\n_The Satyr and the Man_, who blew hot and cold with the same breath,\nand others. It is safe to assert that nothing in literature has been\nmore quoted than the fables named. We could not afford to lose them;\ntheir absence would be a distinct loss--literature and life would be\nthe poorer without them; and, such being the fact, we are justified in\nholding those writers in esteem who have contributed to the instruction\nand entertainment of mankind in the fables they have invented.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[17] 'Institutes of Oratory,' book i., chap. ix.\n\n[18] 'Pairing Time Anticipated.'\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n\u00c6SOP.\n\n\n    'Nature formed but one such man.'\n\n                              BYRON.\n\n\n    'The hungry judges soon the sentence sign.'\n\n                                         POPE.\n\n\n\u00c6sop is justly regarded as the foremost inventor of fables that\nthe world has seen. He flourished in the sixth century before\nChrist. Several places, as in the case of Homer, are claimed as his\nbirthplace--Sardis in Lydia, Ammorius, the island of Samos, and\nMesembra, a city of Thrace; but the weight of authority is in favour of\nCoti\u00e6um, a city of Phrygia in the Lesser Asia,[19] hence his sobriquet\nof 'the Phrygian.'\n\nWhether he was a slave from birth is uncertain, but if not, he became\nsuch, and served three masters in succession. Demarchus or Caresias\nof Athens was his first master; the next, Zanthus or Xanthus, a\nphilosopher, of the island of Samos; and the third, Idmon or Jadmon,\nalso of Samos. His faithful service and wisdom so pleased Idmon that he\ngave \u00c6sop his freedom.\n\nGrowing in reputation both as a sage and a wit, he associated with\nthe wisest men of his age. Amongst his contemporaries were the seven\nsages of Greece: Periander, Thales, Solon, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias\nand Pittacus; but he was eventually esteemed wiser than any of them.\nThe humour with which his sage counsels were spiced made these more\nacceptable (both in his own and later times) than the dull, if weighty,\nwisdom of his compeers.\n\nHe became attached by invitation of Cr\u0153sus, the rich King of Lydia,\nto the court at Sardis, the capital, and continued under the patronage\nof that monarch for the remainder of his life. Cr\u0153sus employed him\nin various embassies which he carried to a successful issue. The last\nhe undertook was a mission to Delphi to offer sacrifices to Apollo, and\nto distribute four min\u00e6[20] of silver to each citizen. To the character\nof the Delphians might with justice be applied the saying of a later\ntime: 'The nearer the temple and the farther from God.' Familiarity\nwith the Oracle, as is the case in smaller matters, bred contempt,\nfor the meanness of their lives was due to the circumstance that the\nofferings of strangers coming to the temple of the god enabled them to\nlive a life of idleness, to the neglect of the cultivation of their\nlands.\n\n\u00c6sop upbraided them for this conduct, and, scorning to encourage them\nin their evil habits, instead of distributing amongst them the money\nwhich Cr\u0153sus had sent, he returned it to Sardis. This, as was\nnatural with persons of their mean character, so inflamed them against\nhim that they conspired to compass his destruction. Accordingly (as\nthe story goes), they hid away amongst his baggage, as he was leaving\nthe city, a golden goblet taken from the temple and consecrated to\nApollo. Search being made, and the vessel discovered, the charge of\nsacrilege was brought against him. His judges pronounced him guilty,\nand he was sentenced to be precipitated from the rock Hyampia.\nImmediately before his execution he delivered to his persecutors the\nfable of _The Eagle and the Beetle_,[21] by which he warned them that\neven the weak may procure vengeance against the strong for injuries\ninflicted. The warning was unheeded by his murderers. The shameful\nsentence was carried out, and so \u00c6sop died, according to Eusebius, in\nthe fourth year of the fifty-fourth Olympiad, or 561 years before the\nChristian era. The fate of poor \u00c6sop was like that of a good many other\nworld-menders!\n\nAccording to ancient chroniclers, the death of \u00c6sop did not go\nunavenged. Misfortunes of many kinds overtook the Delphians; pestilence\ndecimated them; such of their lands as they tried to cultivate were\nrendered barren, with famine as the result, and these miseries\ncontinued to afflict them for many years. At length, having consulted\nthe Oracle, they received as answer that which their secret conscience\naffirmed to be true, that their calamities were due to the death of\n\u00c6sop, whom they had so unjustly condemned. Thereupon they caused\nproclamation to be made in all public places throughout the country,\noffering reparation to any of \u00c6sop's representatives who should appear.\nThe only claimant that responded was a grandson of Idmon, \u00c6sop's former\nmaster; and having made such expiation as he demanded, the Delphians\nwere delivered from their troubles.\n\nNot only was \u00c6sop unfortunate in his death: his personal appearance has\nsuffered disparagement. The most trustworthy chroniclers in ancient\ntimes describe him as a man of good appearance, and even of a pleasing\ncast of countenance; whereas in later years he has been portrayed\nboth by writers and in pictures as deformed in body and repellent in\nfeatures. Stob\u00e6us, it is true, who lived in the fifth century A.D., had\nwritten disparagingly of 'the air of \u00c6sop's countenance,' representing\nthe fabulist as a man of sour visage, and intractable, but he goes no\nfarther than that.\n\nIt is to Maximus Planudes, a Constantinople monk of the fourteenth\ncentury, nearly two thousand years after the time of \u00c6sop, that the\nburlesque of the great fabulist is due. Planudes appears to have\ncollected all the stories regarding \u00c6sop current during the Middle\nAges, and strung them together as an authentic history. Through\nignorance, or by intention, he also confounded the Oriental fabulist,\nLocman,[22] with \u00c6sop, and clothed the latter in all the admitted\ndeformities of the other. He affirmed him as having been flat-faced,\nhunch-backed, jolt-headed, blubber-lipped, big-bellied, baker-legged,\nhis body crooked all over, and his complexion of a swarthy hue. Even\nin recent years, accepting the description of the monk, \u00c6sop has\nbeen thus depicted in the frontispiece to his fables. This writer is\nuntrustworthy in other respects, for in his pretended life of the sage\nhe makes him speak of persons who did not exist, and of events that did\nnot occur for eighty to two hundred years after his death.\n\nThat the story of \u00c6sop's hideous deformity is untrue is clear from\nevidence that is on record. Admitted that this evidence is chiefly of\na negative kind, it is sufficiently strong to refute the statements\nof the monk. In the first place, Planudes, as we have seen, is an\nuntrustworthy chronicler in other respects, and an account of \u00c6sop,\nwritten after the lapse of two thousand years, could only be worthy of\ncredence issuing from a truthful pen, and based on documentary or other\nunquestionable evidence. Of such evidence the Constantinople monk had\nprobably none.\n\nAgain, it is related that during the years of his slavery \u00c6sop had as\nmate, or wife, the beautiful Rhodope,[23] also a slave--an unlikely\ncircumstance, assuming him to have been as repulsive in bodily\nappearance as has been asserted. At all events, any incongruous\nassociation of this kind would have been remarked and commented on by\nearlier writers.\n\nFurther, none of \u00c6sop's contemporaries, nor any writers that\nimmediately followed him, make mention of his alleged deformities. On\nthe contrary, the Athenians, about two hundred years after his death,\nin order to perpetuate his memory and appearance, commissioned the\ncelebrated sculptor Lysippus to produce a statue of \u00c6sop, and this they\nerected in a prominent position in front of those of the seven sages,\n'because,' says Ph\u00e6drus,[24] 'their severe manner did not persuade,\nwhile the jesting of \u00c6sop pleased and instructed at the same time.' It\nis improbable that the figure of a man monstrously deformed as \u00c6sop\nis said to have been would have proved acceptable to the severe taste\nof the Greek mind. An epigram of Agathia, of which the following is a\ntranslation,[25] celebrates the erection of this statue:\n\n\n'TO LYSIPPUS.\n\n    'Sculptor of Sicyon! glory of thy art!\n      I laud thee that the image thou hast placed\n    Of good old \u00c6sop in the foremost part,\n      More than the statues of the sages graced.\n    Grave thought and deep reflection may be found\n      In all the well-respected rolls of these;\n    In wisdom's saws and maxims they abound,\n      But still are wanting in the art to please:\n    Each tale the gentle Samian well has told,\n      Truth in fair fiction pleasantly imparts;\n    Above the rigid censor him I hold\n      Who teaches virtue while he wins our hearts.'\n\nPhilostratus, in an account of certain pictures in existence in the\ntime of the Antonines, describes one as representing \u00c6sop with a\npleasing cast of countenance, in the midst of a circle of the various\nanimals, and the Geniuses of Fable adorning him with wreaths of flowers\nand branches of the olive.\n\nDr. Bentley, in his 'Dissertation,' ridicules the account of \u00c6sop's\ndeformity as given by Planudes in face of all the evidence to the\ncontrary. 'I wish,' says he, 'I could do that justice to the memory\nof our Phrygian, to oblige the painters to change their pencil. For\n'tis certain he was no deformed person; and 'tis probable he was very\nhandsome. For whether he was a Phrygian or, as others say, a Thracian,\nhe must have been sold into Samos by a trader in slaves; and 'tis well\nknown that that sort of people commonly bought up the most beautiful\nthey could light on, because they would yield the most profit.'\n\nBentley's conjecture that \u00c6sop was 'very handsome' does not find\ngeneral acceptance; it has, nevertheless, a solid foundation in the\nfact that the Greeks confined art to the imitation of the beautiful\nonly, reprobating the portrayal of ugly forms, whether human or other.\nIt is not to be believed, therefore, that the chisel of Lysippus\nwas employed in the production of a statue to a deformed person,\nwhich not even the gift of wisdom would have rendered acceptable to\nthe severe taste of his countrymen. Without going so far, however,\nas to accept the view of the learned Master of Trinity, that \u00c6sop\nwas probably _very_ handsome, we may with safety conclude that the\nobjectionable portrait of the sage as drawn by the Byzantine is without\njustification.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[19] Suidas.\n\n[20] The mina was twelve ounces, or a sum estimated as equal to \u00a33 15s.\nEnglish.\n\n[21] See _post_, p. 76.\n\n[22] Spelt variously Locman, L\u00f4qman, Lokman.\n\n[23] This woman is notorious in history as a courtesan who essayed to\ncompound for her sins by votive offerings to the temple at Delphi. She\nis also said to have built the Lesser Pyramid out of her accumulated\nriches, but this is denied by Herodotus, who claims for the structure a\nmore ancient and less discreditable foundation, being the work, as he\nasserts, of Mycerinus, King of Egypt (Herod., ii. 134).\n\n[24] Ph\u00e6drus, Epilogue, book ii.\n\n[25] Boothby, Preface, p. xxxiv.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nSTORIES RELATED OF \u00c6SOP.\n\n\n    'I cannot tell how the truth may be;\n    I say the tale as 'twas said to me.'\n\n                                  SCOTT: _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_.\n\n\n    'Such the simple story told,\n    By a sage[26] renowned of old,\n    To a king[27] whose fabled gold\n      Could not procure him learning.'\n\n                  JAMES CLERK MAXWELL.\n\n\nThere are numerous tales told of \u00c6sop, some of which are obviously\nmythical; others, though their actual parentage may be doubtful, are\nentirely in keeping with his reputation for common, or uncommon,\nsense and ready wit. Ph\u00e6drus has several of these, and Planudes, an\nuntrustworthy chronicler, as we have seen, has many more. Some of the\nstories of the latter are absurd enough, and bordering perhaps on\nthe foolish; but, on the other hand, he tells several that may be\npronounced excellent in every sense, and whatever the shortcomings of\nthe monk in other respects, he deserves credit for having rescued these\nfrom the oblivion which otherwise might have been their fate.\n\nMost writers, especially modern writers, on \u00c6sop, have scouted with an\nunnecessary display of eclecticism the whole of the stories collected\nby Planudes regarding his hero; but in this they show a want of\ndiscrimination. Whether the stories are true of \u00c6sop or not, and I\nknow of no character on whom they may be more aptly fathered, they are\nas ripe in wisdom as are many of the best of the fables, and their\npedigree is quite as authentic.\n\nPhilostratus, in his life of Apollonius Tyaneus, gives the following\nmythical account of the youthful \u00c6sop: When a shepherd's boy, he fed\nhis flock near a temple of Mercury, and frequently prayed to the god\nfor mental endowments. Many other supplicants also came and laid rich\npresents upon the altar, but \u00c6sop's only offering was a little milk and\nhoney, and a few flowers, which the care of his sheep did not allow him\nto arrange with much art. The mercenary god disposed of his gifts in\nproportion to the value of the offerings. To one he gave philosophy, to\nanother eloquence, to a third astronomy, and to a fourth the poetical\nart. When all these were given away he perceived \u00c6sop, and recollecting\na fable which the Hours had related to him in his infancy, he bestowed\nupon him the invention of the Apologue.\n\nEven when a slave, readiness of resource was a characteristic of \u00c6sop,\nand often stood him in good stead. His first master, Demarchus, one\nday brought home some choice figs, which he handed to his butler,\ntelling him that he would partake of them after his bath. The butler\nhad a friend paying him a visit, and by way of entertainment placed\nthe figs before him, and both heartily partook of them. Fearing the\ndispleasure of Demarchus, he resolved to charge \u00c6sop with the theft.\nHaving finished his ablutions, Demarchus ordered the fruit to be\nbrought; but the butler had none to bring, and charged \u00c6sop with having\nstolen and eaten them. The slave, being summoned, denied the charge. It\nwas a serious matter for one in his position. To be guilty meant many\nstripes, if not death. He begged to have some warm water, and he would\nprove his innocence. The water being brought, he took a deep drink;\nthen, putting his finger down his gullet, the water--the sole contents\nof his stomach--was belched. Demarchus now ordered the butler to do the\nsame, with the result that he was proved to be both thief and liar,\nand was punished accordingly.\n\n\u00c6sop going on a journey for his master, along with other slaves of the\nhousehold, and there being many burdens to carry, he begged they would\nnot overload him. Looking upon him as weak in body, his fellow-slaves\ngave him his choice of a load. On this, \u00c6sop selected the pannier of\nbread, which was the heaviest burden of all, at which his companions\nwere amazed, and thought him a fool. Noon came, however, and when they\nhad each partaken of its contents, \u00c6sop's burden was lightened by one\nhalf. At the next meal all the bread was cleared out, leaving \u00c6sop with\nonly the empty basket to carry. At this their eyes were opened, and\ninstead of the fool they at first thought him, he was seen to be the\nwisest of them all.\n\nThe second master who owned \u00c6sop as a slave was Zanthus, the\nphilosopher. Their meeting was in this wise: \u00c6sop being in the\nmarketplace for sale along with two other slaves, Zanthus, who was\nlooking round with a view to making a purchase, asked them what they\ncould do. \u00c6sop's companions hastened to reply, and between them\nprofessed that they could do 'everything.' On \u00c6sop being similarly\nquestioned, he laughingly answered, 'Nothing.' His two fellow-slaves\nhad forestalled him in all possible work, and left him with nothing to\ndo. This reply so amused Zanthus that he selected \u00c6sop in preference to\nthe others who were so boastful of their abilities.\n\nZanthus once, when in his cups, had foolishly wagered his land and\nhouses that he would drink the sea dry. Recovering his senses, he\nbesought \u00c6sop his slave to find him a way out of his difficulty. This\n\u00c6sop engaged to do. At the appointed time, when the foolish feat was to\nbe performed, or his houses and lands forfeited, Zanthus, previously\ninstructed by \u00c6sop, appeared at the seaside before the multitude which\nhad assembled to witness his expected discomfiture. 'I am ready,' cried\nhe, 'to drain the waters of the sea to the last drop; but first of all\nyou must stop the rivers from running into it: to drink these also is\nnot in the contract.' The request was admitted to be a reasonable one,\nand as his opponents were powerless to perform their part, they were\ncovered with derision by the populace, who were loud in their praises\nof the wisdom of Zanthus.\n\nPhilosopher notwithstanding, Zanthus appears to have been often in hot\nwater. On another occasion his wife left him, whether on account of her\nbad temper (as the report goes), or from his too frequent indulgence in\nliquor (as is not unlikely), matters little. He was anxious that she\nshould return, but how to induce her was a difficulty hard to compass.\n\u00c6sop, as usual, was equal to it. 'Leave it to me, master!' said he.\nGoing to market, he gave orders to this dealer and that and the other,\nto send of their best to the residence of Zanthus, as, being about to\ntake unto himself another wife, he intended to celebrate the happy\noccasion by a feast. The report spread like wildfire, and coming to\nthe ears of his spouse, she quickly gathered up her belongings in the\nplace where she had taken up her abode, and returned to the house of\nher lord and master. 'Take another wife, say you, Zanthus! Not whilst I\nam alive, my dear!' And so the ruse was successful, for, as the story\naffirms, she settled down to her duties, and no further cause for\nseparation occurred between them ever after.\n\nPh\u00e6drus relates several stories showing the characteristic readiness\nof the sage. A mean fellow, seeing \u00c6sop in the street, threw a stone\nat him. 'Well done!' was his response to the unmannerly action. 'See!\nhere is a penny for you; on my faith it is all I have, but I will\ntell you how you may get something more. See, yonder comes a rich and\ninfluential man. Throw a stone at him in the same way, and you will\nreceive a due reward.' The rude fool, being persuaded, did as he was\nadvised. His daring impudence, however, brought him a requital he did\nnot hope for, though it was what he deserved, for, being seized, he\npaid the penalty. \u00c6sop in this incident exhibited not only his ready\nwit, but his deep craft, inasmuch as he brought condign punishment upon\nhis persecutor by the hand of another, though he himself, being only a\nslave, might be insulted with impunity.\n\nAn Athenian, seeing \u00c6sop at play in the midst of a crowd of boys,\nstopped and laughed and jeered at him for a madman. The sage, a laugher\nat others rather than one to be laughed at, perceiving this, placed\nan unstrung bow in the middle of the road. 'Hark you, wise man,' said\nhe; 'unriddle what this means.' The people gathered round, whilst the\nman tormented his invention for a long time, trying to frame an answer\nto the riddle; but at last he gave it up. Upon this the victorious\nphilosopher said: 'The bow will soon break if you always keep it bent,\nbut relax it occasionally, and it will be fit for use, and strong, when\nit is wanted'--a piece of sound advice which others than the wiseacre\nchiefly concerned would find it advantageous to practise.\n\nA would-be author had recited some worthless composition to \u00c6sop,\nin which was contained an inordinate eulogy of himself and his own\npowers, and, desiring to know what the sage thought about it, asked:\n'Does it appear to you that I have been too conceited? I have no empty\nconfidence in my own capacity.' Worried to death with the execrable\nproduction, \u00c6sop replied: 'I greatly approve of your bestowing praise\non yourself, for it will never be your lot to receive it from another.'\n\nIn the course of a conversation, being asked by Chilo (one of the wise\nmen of Greece), 'What is the employment of the gods?' \u00c6sop's answer\nwas: 'To depress the proud and exalt the humble.' And in allusion to\nthe sorrows inseparable from the human lot, his explanation, at once\nstriking and poetical, was that 'Prometheus having taken earth to form\nmankind, moistened and tempered it, not with water, but with tears.'\n\nApart from wisdom in the highest sense, \u00c6sop possessed no little\nshare of worldly wisdom, or political wisdom--often only another name\nfor chicane--and exercised it as occasion served. It is related by\nPlutarch, in the 'Life of Solon,' that '\u00c6sop being at the Court of\nCr\u0153sus at a time when the seven sages of Greece were also present,\nthe King, having shown them the magnificence of his Court and the\nvastness of his riches, asked them, \"Whom do you think the happiest\nman?\" Some of them named one, and some another. Solon (whom without\ninjury we may look upon as superior to all the rest) in his answer\ngave two instances. The first was that of one Tellus, a poor Athenian,\nbut of great virtues, who had eminently distinguished himself by his\ncare and education of his family, and at last lost his life in fighting\nfor his country. The other was of two brothers who had given a very\nremarkable proof of their filial piety, and were in reward for it taken\nout of this life by the gods the very night after they had performed\nso dutiful an action. He concluded by adding that he had given such\ninstances because no one could be pronounced happy before his death.\n\u00c6sop perceived that the King was not well satisfied with any of their\nanswers, and being asked the same question, replied \"that for his part\nhe was persuaded that Cr\u0153sus had as much pre-eminence in happiness\nover all other men as the sea has over all the rivers.\"\n\n'The King was so much pleased with this compliment that he eagerly\npronounced that sentence which afterwards became a common proverb,\n\"The Phrygian has hit the mark.\" Soon after this happened, Solon took\nhis leave of Cr\u0153sus, and was dismissed very coolly. \u00c6sop, on his\ndeparture, accompanied him part of his journey, and as they were on\nthe road took an opportunity of saying to him, \"Oh, Solon, either we\nmust not speak to kings, or we must say what will please them.\" \"On\nthe contrary,\" replied Solon, \"we should either not speak to kings\nat all, or we should give them good and useful advice.\" So great was\nthe steadiness of the chief of the sages, and such the courtliness of\n\u00c6sop.'[28]\n\nIt will be noticed that this reply of \u00c6sop to the question of the King\nwas evasive, though the vanity of the latter probably prevented his\nremarking it. He does not declare the King to be the happiest man, but\nleaves it to be inferred that, assuming happiness to be attained by\nmen during life (which Solon denied), then was Cr\u0153sus pre-eminent\nover all others in that respect. It must be admitted that the answer\ndoes not display the character of \u00c6sop in the best light as a moralist,\nhowever much it may exalt his reputation as a courtier. There probably\nwas a good deal of the fox in his nature, and this, not less than his\nwisdom, enabled him to maintain his position at the Court of this vain\nand wealthy potentate.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[26] Solon.\n\n[27] Cr\u0153sus.\n\n[28] Quoted from the 'Life of \u00c6sop' in the introduction to Dodsley's\n'Select Fables.'\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE \u00c6SOPIAN FABLES.\n\n\n    'Brevity is the soul of wit.'\n\n                    SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet_.\n\n\nIt has been asserted that this same \u00c6sop, if not a mythical personage,\nis at least credited with much more than is his due, and that it is\nonly around his name that have clustered the various fables attributed\nto him, like rich juicy grapes round their central stalk, or, to use\na more appropriate image, like swarming bees round a pendent branch.\nOthers have endeavoured, with less or more feasibility, to prove\nthat most of what are called \u00c6sopian fables had their origin in the\nfar East--'The inquisitive amongst the Greeks,' say they, 'travelled\ninto the East to ripen their own imperfect conceptions, and on their\nreturn taught them at home, with the mixture of fables and ornaments\nof fancy'[29]--that the ideas first propounded in India and Arabia\nwere thus carried westward; that \u00c6sop appropriated them and gave them\nforth in a modified form and in a new dress. Scholars and investigators\ndiffer in their views regarding the truth, or the extent of the truth,\nof these allegations, and display much erudition in their attempts to\nsettle the question. It would appear that \u00c6sop has indubitably the\ncredit of certain fables of which he was not the inventor, as they were\nin vogue at a period anterior to the era in which he flourished. It\nis equally proved, on the other hand, that genuine \u00c6sopian or Grecian\nfables have been attributed to Eastern sources, and are found included\nin collections of Eastern fables compiled in the earlier years of the\nChristian era. All this is only what might be expected, and does not\naffect to any serious extent the credit for ingenuity and originality\nof either \u00c6sop or other early fabulists. Doubtless \u00c6sop did get some of\nthe subjects of his fables from foreign sources, but he melted them in\nthe crucible of his mind--he distilled their very essence, and handed\nus the precious concentrated spirit. If he had done nothing more, that\nwas good.\n\nIt is well known, of course, that there were fables of a very excellent\nkind before the time of \u00c6sop. Amongst the \u00c6sopian fables supposed to be\nborrowed from the J\u0101takas are _The Wolf and the Crane_, _The Ass in\nthe Lion's Skin_, _The Lion and Mouse_, and _The Countryman, his Son\nand the Snake_. And Plutarch[30] asserts that the language of Hesiod's\nnightingale to the hawk (spoken three hundred years before the era of\n\u00c6sop) is the origin of the beautiful and instructive wisdom in which\n\u00c6sop has employed so many tongues. Thus:\n\n    'Poor Philomel, one luckless day,\n    Fell in a hungry falcons way.\n    \"If he her life,\" she said, \"would spare,\n    He should have something choice and rare.\"\n    \"What's that?\" quoth he. \"A song,\" she says,\n    \"Melodious as Apollo's lays,\n    That with delight all nature hears.\"\n    \"A hungry belly has no ears,\"\n    Replied the hawk, \"I first must sup,\"\n    And ate the little siren up.\n      When strength and resolution fail,\n    Talents and graces nought avail.'[31]\n\nArchilochus also wrote fables before \u00c6sop;[32] and even anterior to\nthese is the fable of _The Belly and the Members_, and those given in\nHoly Scripture. But, without question, \u00c6sop was a true inventor of\nfables, for it is not to be believed for a moment that Greek genius\n(and this was the genius of \u00c6sop, whatever his parentage) was not equal\nto such a task.\n\nDoubtless many later, as well as earlier, fables are included under\nthe general designation of '\u00c6sopian,' by virtue of their resembling in\nthe characteristics of brevity, force and wit the inventions of the\nsage.\n\n\u00c6sop in all probability did not write out his fables; they were handed\ndown by word of mouth from generation to generation. At length they\nwere collected together, first by Diagoras (400 B.C.), and later by\nDemetrius Phalereus, the Tyrant of Athens (318 B.C.), under the title\nof 'The Assemblies of \u00c6sopian Fables,' long after the sage's death.\nThis collection was made use of both by the Greek freedman Ph\u00e6drus,\nduring the reign of Augustus, in the early years of the Christian era,\nand later by Valerius Babrius, the Roman (230 A.D.). Later again,\ntowards the end of the fourth century, a number of them were translated\ninto Latin by Avienus.\n\nThe \u00c6sopian fables are distinguished by their simplicity, their\nmother-wit and natural humour. A score of examples exhibiting these\nqualities might be cited. A few, not the best known, will suffice:\n\n_The Wolf and the Shepherds._--'A wolf peeping into a hut where\na company of shepherds were regaling themselves with a joint of\nmutton--\"Lord,\" said he, \"what a clamour would these men have raised if\nthey had caught _me_ at such a banquet!\"'\n\nThe compression and humour of this fable are remarkable, and the\nobvious moral is: 'That men are apt to condemn in others what they\npractise themselves without scruple.'\n\n_The Dog and the Crocodile_ bids us be on our guard against associating\nwith persons of an ill reputation. 'As a dog was coursing the banks of\nthe Nile, he grew thirsty; but fearing to be seized by the monsters\nof that river, he would not stop to satiate his drought, but lapped\nas he ran. A crocodile, raising his head above the surface of the\nwater, asked him why he was in such a hurry. He had often, he said,\nwished for his acquaintance, and should be glad to embrace the present\nopportunity. \"You do me great honour,\" returned the dog, \"but it is to\navoid such companions as you that I am in so much haste.\"'\n\nAgain, _The Snake and the Hedgehog_. 'By the intreaties of a hedgehog,\nhalf starved with cold, a snake was once persuaded to receive him\ninto her cell. He was no sooner entered than his prickles began to\nbe very annoying to his companion, upon which the snake desired he\nwould provide himself another lodging, as she found, upon trial, the\napartment was not large enough to accommodate both. \"Nay,\" said the\nhedgehog, \"let them that are uneasy in their situation exchange it; for\nmy own part, I am very well contented where I am; if you are not, you\nare welcome to remove whenever you think proper!\"'\n\nThe fable (or rather story, for it is more an anecdote than a fable)\nof _Mercury and the Sculptor_ reads like a joke of yesterday. In Mr.\nCross's 'Life of George Eliot,' it is recorded that the great novelist\n(in a conversation with Mr. Burne-Jones) recalled her passionate\ndelight and total absorption in \u00c6sop's fables, the possession of which,\nwhen a child, had opened new worlds to her imagination, and she laughed\ntill the tears ran down her face in recalling her infantine enjoyment\nof the humour of this story, as follows:\n\n'Mercury once determined to learn in what esteem he was held among\nmortals. For this purpose he assumed the character of a man, and\nvisited in this disguise the studio of a sculptor. Having looked at\nvarious statues, he demanded the price of two figures of Jupiter and\nJuno. When the sum at which they were valued was named, he pointed to\na figure of himself, saying to the sculptor: \"You will certainly want\nmuch more for this, as it is the statue of the messenger of the gods,\nand the author of all your gain.\" The sculptor replied, \"Well, if you\nwill buy these, I'll fling you that into the bargain.\"'\n\nAgain, take _The Bull and the Gnat_, intended to show that the least\nconsiderable of mankind are seldom destitute of importance:\n\n'A conceited gnat, fully persuaded of his own importance, having\nplaced himself on the horn of a bull, expressed great uneasiness lest\nhis weight should be incommodious; and with much ceremony begged the\nbull's pardon for the liberty he had taken, assuring him that he would\nimmediately remove if he pressed too hard upon him. \"Give yourself no\nuneasiness on that account, I beseech you,\" replied the bull, \"for as\nI never perceived when you sat down, I shall probably not miss you\nwhenever you think fit to rise up.\"'\n\nHere, again, the humour is exquisite; but, indeed, that is a\ncharacteristic of nearly all the fables ascribed to \u00c6sop.\n\nThe fable does not readily lend itself to the expression of pathos.\nPerhaps the only really pathetic fable is that of _The Wolf and\nthe Lamb_, and it is also one of the very best. In this there is a\ntouch of genuine pathos, unique in its character. Hesiod's _Hawk and\nNightingale_,[33] and _The Old Woodcutter and Death_, as told by La\nFontaine, are not wanting in pathos.\n\nThe applicability of the fables of \u00c6sop to the circumstances and\noccurrences of every-day life, in the highest walks as in the\nhumblest--for the nature in both is human, after all--gives them\npeculiar value. This, and their epigrammatical character, so\nconspicuous in the best, combined with the humorous turn that is given\nto them, impresses them upon the memory.\n\nIn such repute have the \u00c6sopian fables always been held, that the\nmost learned men in all ages have occupied themselves in translating\nand transcribing them. Socrates relieved his prison hours in turning\nsome of them into verse.[34] In the days of ancient Greece, not to be\nfamiliar with \u00c6sop was a sign of illiteracy.[35]\n\nWe have seen how other of the ancients collected and disseminated them.\nComing down to later times, one of the first printed collections was by\nBonus Accursius (1489,) from a MS. in the Ambrosian Library at Milan.\nTo this was prefixed the Life by Planudes, written a century before.\nAnother edition of the same was published by Aldus in 1505. The edition\nof Robert Stephens, published in Paris in 1546, followed; then came the\nenlarged collection by Neveletus, from the Heidelberg Library, in 1610.\nLater, Gabriele Faerno's 'One Hundred Fables' are \u00c6sop given in Latin\nverse. So also with most of the collections by modern fabulists, La\nFontaine, Sir Roger L'Estrange, Dr. Samuel Croxall, La Motte, Richer,\nBrettinger, Bitteux--they are all largely \u00c6sop, with added pieces of\nlater invention.\n\n'\u00c6sop has been agreed by all ages since his era for the greatest Master\nin his kind, and all others of that sort have been but imitations of\nhis original.'[36]\n\nOf the popularity of \u00c6sop's fables in book form during last century and\nthe beginning of this, we can scarcely form any conception in these\ndays of cheap literature in such variety and excellence. Along with the\nBible and 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' \u00c6sop may be said to have occupied a\nplace on the meagre bookshelf of almost every cottage.\n\nThe editions of \u00c6sop in English are innumerable, but the most\nnoteworthy, in the different epochs from the age of the invention of\nprinting downwards have been: Caxton's collection (1484); the one\nby Leonard Willans (1650); that by John Ogilby (1651); Sir Roger\nL'Estrange's edition (1692); Dr. Croxall's collection (1722); that of\nRobert Dodsley (1764); and the Rev. Thomas James's \u00c6sop (1848).\n\nIt is remarkable that the majority of those who have busied themselves\nin translating and editing \u00c6sop have won fame and (shall we say?)\nimmortality through that circumstance alone. Take the names in order\nof time, and it will be seen that the men are remembered chiefly or\nonly (most of them) by reason of their association with the \u00c6sopian\nfables: Demetrius Phalereus, Ph\u00e6drus, Babrius, Avienus, Planudes,\nBonus Accursius, Neveletus, even down to La Fontaine, L'Estrange,[37]\nCroxall, and James. The \u00c6sopian fable has indeed a perennial life, and\nits votaries have rendered themselves immortal by association therewith.\n\nWriters of much erudition, and in many countries, have vied with\neach other in learned research in this branch of literature, and\nin endeavours to trace the history of fable. Among the French we\nhave Pierre Pithou (1539-96), editor of the first printed edition\nof Ph\u00e6drus; Bachet de Meziriac, who wrote a life of \u00c6sop (1632);\nBoissonade, Robert, Edelestand du Meril (1854); Hervieux and Gaston\nParis. Of German writers there are Lessing, Fausboll, Hermann\nOesterley, Mueller, Wagener, Heydenreich, Otto Crusius (1879),\nBenfey, Mall, Knoell, Gitlbauer; Niccolo, Perotti, Archbishop of\nSiponto (1430-80), and Jannelli, among the Italians; amongst Jewish\nwriters, Dr. Landsberger. Of English writers we have Christopher Wase,\nAlsop, Boyle, Bentley, Tyrwhitt, Rutherford, James, Robinson Ellis,\nRhys-Davids, G. F. Townsend, and last but not least, Joseph Jacobs, in\nhis scholarly 'History of the \u00c6sopic Fable.'\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[29] Antiquary in 'The Club.'\n\n[30] 'Conviv. Sapient.'\n\n[31] Boothby's translation.\n\n[32] Priscian.\n\n[33] _Ante_, p. 54.\n\n[34] 'Being exhorted by a dream, I composed some verses in honour of\nthe god to whom the present festival [of the sacred embassy to Delos]\nbelongs; but after the god, considering it necessary that he who\ndesigns to be a poet should make fables and not discourses, and knowing\nthat I myself was not a mythologist, on these accounts I versified the\nfables of \u00c6sop, which were at hand, and were known to me.'--Socrates in\nPlato's 'Ph\u00e6do.'\n\n[35] Suidas.\n\n[36] Sir William Temple.\n\n[37] Goldsmith, in his 'Account of the Augustine Age of England,'\nremarks: 'That L'Estrange was a standard writer cannot be disowned,\nbecause a great many very eminent authors formed their style by his.\nBut his standard was far from being a just one; though, when party\nconsiderations are set aside, he certainly was possessed of elegance,\nease, and perspicuity.' Notwithstanding this considerable estimate of\nL'Estrange, it may be said that he is now remembered chiefly by his\nassociation with the \u00c6sopian fables.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nPH\u00c6DRUS AND BABRIUS.\n\n\n    'United, yet divided, twain at once--\n    sit two kings of Fable on one throne.'\n\n                                  COWPER: _The Task (altered)_.\n\n\nPh\u00e6drus, who wrote the fables of \u00c6sop in Latin iambics, and added\nothers of his own, was born at the very source of poetic inspiration,\non Mount Pierius, near to the Pierian spring, the seat of the Muses,\nin Thrace, at that time a portion of the Roman province of Macedonia,\nand of which Octavius, the father of Augustus C\u00e6sar, was Proconsul,\nduring the last century before the Christian era. Like \u00c6sop, he too was\na slave in early youth, but being taken to Rome, he was manumitted by\nAugustus, and occupied a place in the household of that Emperor. Here\nhe acquired the pure Latinity of his style, and in later years wrote\nthe well-known fables in the collection that bears his name. His fables\nare in five books, and were published during the reign of Tiberius and\nsubsequent emperors.\n\nIn the prologue to his third book, addressed to Eutychus,[38] he thus\nalludes to his birthplace, and disavows all mercenary aims in his\nliterary pursuits:\n\n    'Me--whom a Grecian mother bore\n    On Hill Pierian, where of yore\n    Mnemosyne in love divine\n    Brought forth to Jove the tuneful Nine.\n    Though sprung where genius reigned with art,\n    I grubb'd up av'rice from my heart,\n    And rather for applause than pay,\n    Embrace the literary way--\n    Yet as a writer and a wit,\n    With some abatements they admit.\n    What is his case then, do you think,\n    Who toils for wealth nor sleeps a wink,\n    Preferring to the pleasing pain\n    Of composition, sordid gain?\n    But hap what will (as Sinon said\n    When to King Priam he was led),\n    I book the third shall now fulfil,\n    With \u00c6sop for my master still,\n    Which book I dedicate to you\n    As both to worth and honour due.\n    Pleased, if you read; if not, content,\n    As conscious of a sure event,\n    That these my fables shall remain,\n    And after-ages entertain.'[39]\n\nHis object, as he declares, was to expose vice and folly; in pursuing\nit he did not escape persecution, for Sejanus, the arbitrary minister\nof Tiberius (who had now succeeded to the imperial purple), took\nmortal offence at certain of the apologues which he suspected applied\nto himself, and, 'informer, witness, judge and all,' laid the iron\nhand of power heavy upon the fabulist. Ph\u00e6drus, whose early years of\nslavery had left no taint of servility upon his character, was too\nindependent to stoop to insolent power, and resented the treatment to\nwhich he was subjected. Thus beset, and probably largely owing to this\ncause, his last years were spent in poverty. Amidst the infirmities of\nage he compares himself to the old hound in his last apologue, which\nbeing chastised by his master for his feebleness in allowing the boar\nto escape, replied, 'Spare your old servant! It was the power, not the\nwill, that failed me. Remember rather what I was than abuse me for what\nI am.' A lesson which even at the present day may sometimes find its\napplication. Ph\u00e6drus prophesied his own immortality as an author, and\nhis boast was that whilst \u00c6sop invented, he (Ph\u00e6drus) perfected.\n\nBabrius,[40] a Latin, did for the \u00c6sopian fable, in Greek choliambics,\nwhat Ph\u00e6drus, a Greek, accomplished for them in Latin iambics. He\nis believed to have lived in the third century A.D., and to have\ncomposed his fables in his quality of tutor to Branchus, the young\nson of the Emperor Alexander Severus.[41] His collection of \u00c6sopian\nfables in two books was known to ancient writers, who refer to him\nand quote his apologues, but, like other literary treasures, it was\nlost during the Middle Ages. Early in the seventeenth century, Isaac\nNicholas Neveletus, a Swiss, published (1610) an edition of the fables\nof \u00c6sop, containing not only those embraced in the work of Planudes,\nbut additional fables from MSS. in the Vatican Library, and some from\nAphthonius and Babrius. He further expressed the opinion that the\nlatter was the earliest collector and writer of the \u00c6sopian fables in\nGreek. Francis Vavassor, a French Jesuit, followed with comments on\nBabrius on the same lines; so also another Frenchman, Bayle, in his\n'Dictionnaire Historique'; Thomas Tyrwhitt and Dr. Bentley in England,\nand Francisco de Furia in Italy, also espoused the idea first suggested\nby Neveletus, and adduced further proofs in support of it. Singularly\nenough, the accuracy of the forecast of these scholars was established\nby the discovery in 1840, by M. Minoides Menas, a Greek, at the Convent\nof St. Laura on Mount Athos, of a veritable copy of Babrius in Greek\ncholiambic verse. The transcript of Menas was first published in Paris\nin 1844. The first English edition was edited by Sir George Cornewall\nLewis in the original Greek text, with Latin notes, and afterwards\n(1860) translated into English by the Rev. James Davies, M.A., and they\nnow form the most trustworthy version of the \u00c6sopian fables.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[38] 'The Charioteer of Caligula,' B\u00fccheler.\n\n[39] From the translation of the fables of Ph\u00e6drus into English verse\nby Christopher Smart, A.M.\n\n[40] Sometimes spelt 'Gabrias.'\n\n[41] Jacobs: 'History of the \u00c6sopic Fable,' p. 22.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nTHE FABLE IN HISTORY AND MYTH.\n\n\n    'Full of wise saws.'\n\n            SHAKESPEARE: _As You Like It_.\n\n\n'Fables,' says Aristotle, 'are adapted to deliberate oratory, and\npossess this advantage: that to hit upon facts which have occurred\nin point is difficult; but with regard to fables it is comparatively\neasy. For an orator ought to construct them just as he does his\nillustrations, if he be able to discover the point of similitude, a\nthing which will be easy to him if he be of a philosophical turn of\nmind.'[42]\n\nThe truth of this is exemplified in the use which has been made of the\napologue by orators in all ages, but especially in early times.\n\nThe following instances of the application of fables to particular\noccasions are recorded. The fable of _The Belly and the Members_, which\nis reputed to be the oldest in existence, is of sterling excellence,\nas well as of venerable antiquity.[43] Its lucid moral is truth\nin essence. The logic of its conclusion is as invulnerable as the\ndemonstration of a proposition in Euclid. There is no gainsaying it,\nturn it how we may, and, with all due deference to Montaigne, only one\nmoral is deducible from it. This is solid bottom ground and bed rock,\nsafe for chain-cable holding; safe for building upon, however high\nthe superstructure. Striking use was made of it by Menenius Agrippa\nwhen the rabble refused to pay their share of the taxes necessary for\ncarrying on the business of the State.\n\nIn the 'Coriolanus' of Shakespeare, Menenius, the Roman Consul,\nis introduced in character,[44] and recounts the apologue to the\ndisaffected citizens of Rome. Thus the dramatist, in his superb way:\n\n      _Men._                  Either you must\n    Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,\n    Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you\n    A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;\n    But since it serves my purpose, I will venture\n    To stale 't a little more.\n\n      _1 Cit._ Well, I'll hear it, sir; yet you must not think\n    to fob off our disgrace with a tale; but, an 't please you,\n    deliver.\n\n      _Men._ There was a time when all the body's Members\n    Rebelled against the Belly; thus accused it:\n    That only like a gulf it did remain\n    I' the midst o' the body, idle and inactive,\n    Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing\n    Like labour with the rest; where th' other instruments\n    Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,\n    And, mutually participate, did minister\n    Unto the appetite and affection common\n    Of the whole body. The Belly answered:\n\n      _1 Cit._ Well, sir, what answer made the Belly?\n\n      _Men._ Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,\n    Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus--\n    For, look you, I may make the Belly smile\n    As well as speak--it tauntingly replied\n    To the discontented Members, the mutinous parts\n    That envied his receipt: even so most fitly\n    As you malign our senators, for that\n    They are not such as you.\n\n      _1 Cit._                 Your Belly's answer? What!\n    The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,\n    The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,\n    Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,\n    With other muniments and petty helps\n    In this our fabric, if that they----\n\n      _Men._                              What then?----\n    'Fore me this fellow speaks!--what then? what then?\n\n      _1 Cit._ Should by the cormorant Belly be restrained,\n    Who is the sink o' the body----\n\n      _Men._                          Well, what then?\n\n      _1 Cit._ The former agents, if they did complain,\n    What could the Belly answer?\n\n      _Men._                      I will tell you,\n    If you'll bestow a small--of what you have little--\n    Patience awhile, you'll hear the Belly's answer.\n\n      _1 Cit._ Ye're long about it.\n\n      _Men._                          Note me this, good friend,\n    Your most grave Belly was deliberate,\n    Not rash, like his accusers, and thus answered:\n    'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he,\n    'That I receive the general food at first,\n    Which you do live upon; and fit it is,\n    Because I am the storehouse and the shop\n    Of the whole body; but, if you do remember,\n    I send it through the rivers of your blood,\n    Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain,\n    And through the cranks and offices of man.\n    The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins,\n    From me receive that natural competency\n    Whereby they live; and though that all at once,\n    You, my good friends----' This says the Belly, mark me.\n\n      _1 Cit._ Ay, sir; well, well.\n\n      _Men._                          'Though all at once cannot\n    See what I do deliver out to each,\n    Yet I can make my audit up, that all\n    From me do back receive the flour of all,\n    And leave me but the bran.' What say you to 't?\n\n      _1 Cit._ It was an answer. How apply you this?\n\n      _Men._ The senators of Rome are this good Belly,\n    And you the mutinous Members; for examine\n    Their counsels and their cares; digest things rightly,\n    Touching the weal o' the common, you shall find\n    No public benefit which you receive\n    But it proceeds or comes from them to you,\n    And no way from yourselves. What do you think?\n\nThe oldest fable in Holy Scripture, having been spoken or written about\nsix centuries before the time of \u00c6sop, is that of _The Trees in Search\nof a King_, recounted by Jotham to the men of Shechem, and directed\nagainst Abimelech,[45] wherein it is shown that the most worthless\npersons are generally the most presuming:\n\n'And all the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the\nhouse of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the\npillar that was in Shechem. And when they told it to Jotham, he went\nand stood in the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and\ncried and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God\nmay hearken unto you. The Trees went forth on a time to anoint a king\nover them; and they said unto the Olive-tree, Reign thou over us. But\nthe Olive-tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by\nme they honour God and man, and go to wave to and fro over the trees?\nAnd the Trees said to the Fig-tree, Come thou, and reign over us.\nBut the Fig-tree said unto them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my\ngood fruit, and go to wave to and fro over the trees? And the Trees\nsaid unto the Vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the Vine said\nunto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go\nto wave to and fro over the trees? Then said all the Trees unto the\nBramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the Bramble said unto the\ntrees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your\ntrust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the Bramble, and\ndevour the cedars of Lebanon.'\n\nThe Samians had impeached their Prime Minister for embezzling the money\nof the Commonwealth, and would have put him to death. \u00c6sop, addressing\nthe assembled councillors, introduced the fable of _The Fox and the\nHedgehog_ into his oration, as an argument to dissuade them from their\npurpose.\n\n'A fox, swimming across a rapid river, was carried by the current into\na deep ravine, where he lay for a time bruised and sick, and unable to\nmove. A swarm of hungry flies[46] settled upon him. A hedgehog, passing\nby, compassionated his sufferings, and would have driven away the flies\nthat were tormenting him. \"Pray do not molest them,\" cried the fox.\n\"How is this?\" asked the hedgehog. \"Do you not want to be rid of them?\"\n\"By no means,\" replied the fox; \"for these flies are now full of blood,\nand sting me but little, and if you rid me of these which are already\nsatiated, others more hungry will come in their place, and will drink\nup all the blood I have left.\" Thus also, O Samians, this man no longer\ninjures you, for he is wealthy; should you, however, put him to death,\nothers who are poor will come, who will exhaust you by filching the\npublic money.'\n\nSuch a plea in arrest of judgment would hardly suffice in these later\ndays.\n\nThe fable of _The Frogs petitioning Jupiter for a King_ was spoken by\n\u00c6sop to the Athenians in order to reconcile them to the mild yoke of\nthe usurper Pisistratus, against whom, after they had raised him to the\nsupreme power, the people began to murmur. 'The Commonwealth of Frogs,\na discontented, variable race, weary of liberty, and fond of a change,\npetitioned Jupiter to grant them a king. The good-natured deity, in\norder to indulge this their request with as little mischief to the\npetitioners as possible, threw them down a log. At first they regarded\ntheir new monarch with great reverence, and kept from him at a most\nrespectful distance; but perceiving his tame and peaceable disposition,\nthey by degrees ventured to approach him with more familiarity, till\nat length some of them even ventured to climb up his side and squat\nupon him, and they all conceived for him the utmost contempt. In this\ndisposition, they renewed their request to Jupiter, and entreated him\nto bestow upon them another king. The Thunderer in his wrath sent them\na crane, who no sooner took possession of his new dominions than he\nbegan to devour his subjects one after another in a most capricious\nand tyrannical manner. They were now more dissatisfied than before;\nwhen applying to Jupiter a third time, they were dismissed with the\nreproof that the evil they complained of they had imprudently brought\nupon themselves, and that they had no remedy now but to submit to it\nwith patience.'\n\nPlutarch, in his account of 'The Feast of the Sages' at the Court of\nPeriander, King of Corinth (himself one of the seven), narrates the\nincident of Alexidemus, natural son of the Tyrant of Miletus, who,\nhaving taken offence at being placed lower at the table than '\u00c6olians,\nand Islanders, and people known to nobody,' was ridiculed by \u00c6sop,\nwho related to the assembled guests the fable of _The Arrogant Mule\nmortified_. 'The lion,' said he, 'gave a feast to the beasts. The horse\nand the ass sent excuses, the one having to bear his master a journey,\nand the other to turn the mill for the housewife; but, in order to\nhonour the hospitality of the forest king, they sent their son, the\nmule, in their stead. At table a dispute arose about precedence, the\nmule claiming the higher place in right of his parent the horse,\nwhich the ox and others disputed, asserting that the mule had no just\npretensions to the dignity claimed. At length, argument having run\nhigh, the mule would fain have been content with the seat reserved for\nthe ass; but even this was now denied him, and, as a punishment for\nhis presumption, he was thrust to the lower end, as one who, instead of\nmeriting consideration, was nothing but a base mongrel.'\n\nIt is said that when \u00c6sop was being taken to the rock Hyampia, there to\nbe sacrificed, he predicted that the hand of retributive Justice would\nsmite his persecutors for their inhumanity; and, reciting the fable of\n_The Eagle and the Beetle_, he warned them that the weakest may procure\nvengeance against the most powerful in requital of injuries inflicted.\n'A hare, being pursued by an eagle, retreated into the nest of a\nbeetle, who promised her protection. The eagle repulsed the beetle,\nand destroyed the hare before its face. The beetle, remembering the\nwrong done it, soared to the nest of the eagle and destroyed her eggs.\nAppealing to Jupiter, the god listened to the petition of his favourite\nbird, and granted her leave to lay her eggs in his lap for safety.\nThe beetle, seeing this, made a ball of dirt, and, carrying it aloft,\ndropped it into the lap of the god, who, forgetting the eggs, shook all\noff together.'\n\n_The Piper turned Fisherman_ was spoken by Cyrus (King of Persia) at\nSardis to the Ionians and \u00c6olians on the occasion of their sending\nambassadors, offering to become subject to him on the same terms as\nthey had been to Cr\u0153sus. But he, when he heard their proposal, told\nthem this story: 'A piper seeing some fishes in the sea, began to\npipe, expecting that they would come to shore; but finding his hopes\ndisappointed, he took a casting-net, and enclosed a great number of\nfishes, and drew them out. When he saw them leaping about, he said\nto the fishes: \"Cease your dancing, since when I piped you would not\ncome out and dance.\"' Cyrus told this story to the Ionians and \u00c6olians\nbecause the Ionians, when Cyrus pressed them by his ambassador to\nrevolt from Cr\u0153sus, refused to consent, and now, when the business\nwas done, were ready to listen to him. He therefore, under the\ninfluence of anger, gave them this answer.[47]\n\nThe fable of _The Horse and the Stag_ was rehearsed by Stesichorus to\nthe citizens of Himera[48] with a view to stimulating them to beware\nof the encroachments of Phalaris the Tyrant, whom they had chosen\ngeneral with absolute powers, and were on the eve of assigning him a\nbody-guard. 'The stag, with his horns, got the better of the horse, and\ndrove him clean out of the pasture where they used to feed together.\nSo the horse craved the assistance of man; and in order to receive the\nbenefit of his help, suffered him to put a bridle on his neck, a bit\nin his mouth, and a saddle upon his back. By this means he entirely\ndefeated his enemy. But guess his chagrin when, returning thanks, and\ndesiring to be dismissed, he received for answer: \"No! I never knew\nbefore how useful a drudge you were; and now that I have found what\nyou are good for, you may depend upon it I will keep you to it.\" Look\nto it, then' (continued Stesichorus), 'lest in your wish to avenge\nyourselves on your enemies you suffer in the same way as the horse; for\nalready, through your choice of a commander with independent power, you\nhave the bit in your mouths; but if you assign him a body-guard, and\npermit him to mount into the saddle, you will become, from that moment\nforth, the slaves of Phalaris.'\n\nWhen the Athenians, with the ingratitude which sometimes blinds a\nwhole people to the merits of their best friends, would have betrayed\nDemosthenes into the hands of Philip, King of Macedonia, the orator, as\nwatch-dog of the State,[49] brought them to a better frame of mind by a\nrecital of _The Wolves and the Sheep_. 'Once on a time, the wolves sent\nan embassy to the sheep, desiring that there might be peace between\nthem for the time to come. \"Why,\" said they, \"should we be for ever\nwaging this deadly strife? Those wicked dogs are the cause of it all;\nthey are incessantly barking at us and provoking us; send them away,\nand there will no longer be any obstacle to our eternal friendship and\npeace.\" The silly sheep listened; the dogs were dismissed, and the\nflock, thus deprived of their best protectors, became an easy prey to\ntheir treacherous enemy.'\n\nOn another occasion, when the populace were wrangling and disputing on\nmatters of comparatively small moment whilst neglecting more important\nconcerns, the same orator warned them of the danger they were in of\nlosing the substance in fighting for the shadow. 'A youth,' said he,\n'one hot summer day, hired an ass to carry him from Athens to Megara.\nAt mid-day the heat of the sun was so intense that he dismounted, and\nsat down to repose himself in the shadow of the ass. The driver of the\nass thereupon disputed with him, declaring that he had a better right\nto the shade than the other. \"What!\" said the youth, \"did I not hire\nthe ass for the whole journey?\" \"Yes,\" replied the other, \"you hired\nthe ass, but not the ass's shadow.\" While they were wrangling and\nfighting for the place, the ass took to his heels and ran away.'\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[42] 'Rhetoric,' book ii., chap. xx.\n\n[43] 'A variant of it, or something very like it, was discovered twelve\nyears ago by M. Maspero in a fragmentary papyrus, which he dates about\nthe twentieth dynasty (_circa_ 1250 B.C.).'--Jacobs: 'History of the\n\u00c6sopic Fable,' p. 82.\n\n[44] Act I., Scene i.\n\n[45] Judges ix. 8-15.\n\n[46] Aristotle in his 'Treatise on Rhetoric,' book ii., chap. xx. has\nhorse-leeches as the blood-suckers.\n\n[47] Herodotus, i. 141. Cary's translation; Bohn.\n\n[48] Aristotle's 'Rhetoric,' book ii., chap. xx.\n\n[49] The episode of the eccentric and, alas! well-nigh forgotten\npolitician, John Arthur Roebuck, in his assumption of the character of\n'Tearem,' the watch-dog, will recur to readers.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nHINDOO, ARABIAN, AND PERSIAN FABLES.--PILPAY, LOCMAN.--THE 'GESTA\nROMANORUM.'\n\n\n    'When to my study I retire,\n      And from books of ancient sages\n    Glean fresh sparks of buried fire\n      Lurking in their ample pages--\n      While the task my mind engages\n    Let old words new truths inspire.'\n\n                  JAMES CLERK MAXWELL.\n\n\nThe 'Panca Tantra' is a collection of Hindoo fables, the supposed\nauthor of which was Vishnu Sarman, and this is believed to be the\nsource of 'The Fables of Pilpay' or _Bidpa\u012b_, which are undoubtedly\nof Indian origin. The transformation which these latter have\nexperienced in their progress down the ages, chiefly by reason of their\nhaving been translated into the Arabic in the sixth century under the\nname of the 'Book of Kalilah and Dimnah,' and afterwards into other\nEastern languages, has altered their Indian character, and caused them\nto assume a Persian vesture and significance. They are rich in ripe\nwisdom, and prove the insight of their author or authors into human\nnature, which in those early days, and in those far countries, was much\nas it is in more westerly communities and in our own times.\n\nTaking the \u00c6sopian fable as our model, the bulk of Pilpay's stories\nare not fables _par excellence_. They are more of the nature of\n_rencontres_ of adventures, fabulous, it is true, and containing\ngenerally an excellent moral, but elaborated and complex for the\nmost part; they are wanting in the terseness, the crispness, and\nconcentration, as well as in the simplicity and spontaneity, of the\nGreek. At the same time there is a freshness and vigour in these old\nfables that is not sacrificed by translation, and they are sufficiently\nstriking and admirable as moral stories to justify the repute in which\nthey have always been held. _The Greedy and Ambitious Cat_ is one of\nthe stories in the Bidpa\u012b collection.\n\n'There was formerly an old woman in a village, extremely thin, half\nstarved, and meagre. She lived in a little cottage as dark and gloomy\nas a fool's heart, and withal as close shut up as a miser's hand.[50]\nThis miserable creature had for the companion of her wretched\nretirement a cat, meagre and lean as herself; the poor creature never\nsaw bread nor beheld the face of a stranger, and was forced to be\ncontented with only smelling the mice in their holes, or seeing the\nprints of their feet in the dust. If by some extraordinary lucky chance\nthis miserable animal happened to catch a mouse, she was like a beggar\nthat discovers a treasure: her visage and her eyes were inflamed\nwith joy, and that booty served her for a whole week; and out of the\nexcess of her admiration, and distrust of her own happiness, she would\ncry out to herself, \"Heavens! is this a dream, or is it real?\" One\nday, however, ready to die for hunger, she got upon the ridge of her\nenchanted castle, which had long been the mansion of famine for cats,\nand spied from thence another cat, that was stalking upon a neighbour's\nwall like a lion, walking along as if she were counting her steps, and\nso fat that she could hardly go. The old woman's cat, astonished to see\na creature of her own species so plump and so large, with a loud voice\ncries out to her pursy neighbour: \"In the name of pity speak to me,\nthou happiest of the cat kind! Why, you look as if you came from one of\nthe Khan of Kathais'[51] feasts; I conjure ye to tell me how or in what\nregion it is that you get your skin so well stuffed.\"\n\n'\"Where?\" replied the fat one. \"Why, where should one feed well but\nat a king's table? I go to the house,\" continued she, \"every day about\ndinner-time, and there I lay my paws upon some delicious morsel or\nother, which serves me till the next, and then leave enough for an army\nof mice, which under me live in peace and tranquillity; for why should\nI commit murder for a piece of tough and skinny mouse-flesh, when I can\nlive on venison at a much easier rate?\"\n\n'The lean cat, on this, eagerly inquired the way to this house of\nplenty, and entreated her plump neighbour to carry her one day along\nwith her.\n\n'\"Most willingly,\" said the fat puss; \"for thou seest I am naturally\ncharitable, and thou art so lean that I heartily pity thy condition.\"\n\n'On this promise they parted, and the lean cat returned to the old\nwoman's chamber, where she told her dame the story of what had befallen\nher.\n\n'The old woman prudently endeavoured to dissuade her cat from\nprosecuting her design, admonishing her withal to have a care of being\ndeceived.\n\n'\"For, believe me,\" said she, \"the desires of the ambitious are never\nto be satiated but when their mouths are stuffed with the dirt of\ntheir graves. Sobriety and temperance are the only things that truly\nenrich people. I must tell thee, poor silly cat, that they who travel\nto satisfy their ambition have no knowledge of the good things they\npossess, nor are they truly thankful to Heaven for what they enjoy, who\nare not contented with their fortune.\"\n\n'The poor starved cat, however, had conceived so fair an idea of\nthe king's table, that the old woman's good morals and judicious\nremonstrances entered in at one ear and went out at the other; in\nshort, she departed the next day with the fat puss to go to the king's\nhouse; but, alas! before she got thither her destiny had laid a snare\nfor her. For, being a house of good cheer, it was so haunted with cats\nthat the servants had, just at this time, orders to kill all the cats\nthat came near it, by reason of a great robbery committed the night\nbefore in the king's larder by several grimalkins. The old woman's cat,\nhowever, pushed on by hunger, entered the house, and no sooner saw a\ndish of meat unobserved by the cooks, but she made a seizure of it,\nand was doing what for many years she had not done before, that is,\nheartily filling her belly; but as she was enjoying herself under the\ndresser-board, and feeding heartily upon her stolen morsels, one of the\ntesty officers of the kitchen, missing his breakfast, and seeing where\nthe poor cat was solacing herself with it, threw his knife at her with\nsuch an unlucky hand that it struck her full in the breast. However,\nas it has been the providence of Nature to give this creature nine\nlives instead of one, poor puss made a shift to crawl away, after she\nhad for some time shammed dead; but in her flight, observing the blood\ncome streaming from her wound--\"Well,\" said she, \"let me but escape\nthis accident, and if ever I quit my old home and my own mice for all\nthe rarities in the king's kitchen, may I lose all my nine lives at\nonce!\"'\n\nThe moral of the story is, that it is better to be contented with what\none has than to travel in search of what ambition prompts us to seek\nfor.\n\nIn the Escurial, near Madrid, the library of which is rich in ancient\nliterary treasures, is a work by Ebn Arabscah, a collection of Arabian\nfables. Arabia may with truth be designated the very fountain-head\nof fabulous story. It was in that country that the venerable Locman\nflourished, during, it is believed, the reigns of the Jewish kings\nDavid and Solomon. Berington, in his essay on 'The Arabian or Saracenic\nLearning,' remarks that Locman is said to have been an Ethiopian or\nNubian, extremely deformed in his person, but so famed for wisdom as to\nhave acquired the appellation of the Sage. His fables and moral maxims,\nwritten for the instruction of mankind, were in the estimation of the\nEastern people a gift from heaven, and they received them as its\ninspired dictates. 'Heretofore,' says the Divine being in the Koran,\n'we gave wisdom to Locman.' The same writer suggests whether Locman and\n\u00c6sop may not be the same person. 'The history of the two sages is so\nperfectly similar in their characters and the incidents of their lives,\nthat one must have been borrowed from the other. But the chronological\ndifficulties,' he adds, 'are sufficiently perplexing.'\n\nWe have already seen that the alleged similarity in character and\nbodily appearance was due to the invention or misconception of\nPlanudes, whose story of \u00c6sop was written in the fourteenth century,\nand therefore the seeming identity of the sages falls to the ground.\nMoreover, the fables of \u00c6sop have a mobility about them which we do not\nfind in those of other fabulists; they are essentially Attic in their\ndiction, exhibiting all the marks of that compressed wit and wisdom for\nwhich the ancient Greek mind was distinguished. Eastern fable, on the\nother hand, is ornate and florid, and wanting in the Grecian clear-cut\ndirectness and point. It is idle to assume that the ideas, if not the\ndiction, may have been borrowed and clothed in a new dress, unless it\ncan be shown that the substance or subject-matter of the fables of the\ntwo sages is alike or similar in character. Granted that a few--about a\ndozen in number[52]--of the \u00c6sopian fables find their counterpart in\nthe fables of a more remote antiquity and in more Eastern countries,\nthis circumstance might be expected; ideas dating from the very advent\nof the human race are current amongst us in this day, but surely even\nwe of the nineteenth century have a sufficient stock of original\nconceptions to justify our claims to be considered inventors, and so\nwith \u00c6sop and the race of fabulists in all ages.\n\nMrs. Jameson says,[53] with great force and truth, that 'the fables\nwhich appeal to our higher moral sympathies may sometimes do as much\nfor us as the truths of science,' and she paraphrases from Sir William\nJones's Persian Grammar a fable embodying one of those traditions of\nour Lord which are preserved in the East.\n\n'Jesus,' says the story, 'arrived one evening at the gates of a certain\ncity, and He sent His disciples forward to prepare supper, while He\nHimself, intent on doing good, walked through the streets into the\nmarket place.\n\n'And He saw at the corner of the market some people gathered together\nlooking at an object on the ground; and He drew near to see what it\nmight be. It was a dead dog with a halter round his neck, by which\nhe appeared to have been dragged through the dirt; and a viler, more\nabject, a more unclean thing never met the eyes of man.\n\n'And those who stood by looked on with abhorrence.\n\n'\"Faugh!\" said one, stopping his nose, \"it pollutes the air.\" \"How\nlong,\" said another, \"shall this foul beast offend our sight?\" \"Look\nat his torn hide,\" said a third; \"one could not even cut a shoe out of\nit.\" \"And his ears,\" said a fourth, \"all draggled and bleeding!\" \"No\ndoubt,\" said a fifth, \"he hath been hanged for thieving!\"\n\n'And Jesus heard them, and looking down compassionately on the dead\ncreature, He said, \"Pearls are not equal to the whiteness of his teeth!\"\n\n'Then the people turned towards Him with amazement, and said among\nthemselves, \"Who is this? this must be Jesus of Nazareth, for only _He_\ncould find something to pity and approve even in a dead dog!\" And being\nashamed, they bowed their heads before Him, and went each on his way.'\n\n'I can recall,' continues Mrs. Jameson, 'at this hour, the vivid,\nyet softening and pathetic, impression left on my fancy by this old\nEastern story. It struck me as exquisitely humorous, as well as\nexquisitely beautiful. It gave me a pain in my conscience, for it\nseemed thenceforward so easy and so vulgar to say satirical things,\nand so much nobler to be benign and merciful; and I took the lesson so\nhome that I was in great danger of falling into the opposite extreme;\nof seeking the beautiful even in the midst of the corrupt and the\nrepulsive. Pity, a large element in my composition, might have easily\ndegenerated into weakness, threatening to subvert hatred of evil in\ntrying to find excuses for it; and whether my mind has ever completely\nrighted itself, I am not sure.'\n\nOur remarks on the fables of Pilpay are equally applicable to the\n'Gesta Romanorum' or 'Entertaining Moral Stories' invented by the monks\nas a fireside recreation in the Middle Ages. Most of them are recitals\nof adventures rather than fables. They are believed to be of English\norigin, though a similar 'Gesta,' composed of stories in imitation of\nthem, appeared in Germany about the same time. The taste displayed in\nmany of them is of a questionable kind, and an outrageous twist is\noften given to their application; though doubtless they are a truthful\nreflex of the ideas and manners of the age in which they were composed\nand rehearsed, and in that respect they are of the utmost interest and\nvalue. Most of the fables or tales in the 'Gesta' begin well, and\nwith a promise of interest. This interest, it must be said, is rarely\nmaintained, for, as a rule, their conclusion is insipid, and sometimes\ninane. This notwithstanding, they are valuable by reason of their\nsuggestiveness. The two examples we quote, translated from the Latin\nby the Rev. Charles Swan, are not faultless, but they are coherent\nthroughout, and have a rounded literary finish in which many of the\nothers are wanting. The first is entitled _Of Perfect Life_:\n\n'When Titus was Emperor of Rome, he made a decree that the natal\nday of his first-born son should be held sacred, and that whosoever\nviolated it by any kind of labour should be put to death. This edict\nbeing promulgated, he called Virgil, the learned man, to him, and\nsaid, \"Good friend, I have established a certain law, but as offences\nmay frequently be committed without being discovered by the ministers\nof justice, I desire you to frame some curious piece of art which may\nreveal to me every transgressor of the law.\" Virgil replied, \"Sire,\nyour will shall be accomplished.\" He straightway constructed a magic\nstatue, and caused it to be erected in the midst of the city. By virtue\nof the secret powers with which it was invested, it communicated to the\nEmperor whatever offences were committed in secret on that day. And\nthus, by the accusation of the statue, an infinite number of persons\nwere convicted.\n\n'Now, there was a certain carpenter, called Focus, who pursued his\noccupation every day alike. Once, as he lay in his bed, his thoughts\nturned upon the accusations of the statue, and the multitudes which it\nhad caused to perish. In the morning he clothed himself, and proceeded\nto the statue, which he addressed in the following manner: \"O statue!\nstatue! because of thy informations, many of our citizens have been\napprehended and slain. I vow to my God that, if thou accusest me, I\nwill break thy head.\" Having so said, he returned home. About the first\nhour, the Emperor, as he was wont, despatched sundry messengers to the\nstatue to inquire if the edict had been strictly complied with. After\nthey had arrived and delivered the Emperor's pleasure, the statue\nexclaimed, \"Friends, look up: what see ye written upon my forehead?\"\nThey looked, and beheld three sentences, which ran thus: \"Times are\naltered. Men grow worse. He who speaks truth will have his head\nbroken.\" \"Go,\" said the statue; \"declare to his majesty what you have\nseen and read.\" The messengers obeyed, and detailed the circumstances\nas they had happened.\n\n'The Emperor thereupon commanded his guard to arm, and march to the\nplace on which the statue was erected; and he further ordered that,\nif any one presumed to molest it, they should bind him hand and foot\nand drag him into his presence. The soldiers approached the statue,\nand said: \"Our Emperor wills you to declare who have broken the law,\nand who they are that threatened you.\" The statue made answer, \"Seize\nFocus, the carpenter! Every day he violates the law, and, moreover,\nmenaces me.\" Immediately Focus was apprehended and conducted to the\nEmperor, who said, \"Friend, what do I hear of thee? Why dost thou break\nmy law?\" \"My lord,\" answered Focus, \"I cannot keep it; for I am obliged\nto obtain every day eight pennies, which, without incessant labour, I\nhave not the means of acquiring.\" \"And why eight pennies?\" said the\nEmperor. \"Every day through the year,\" returned the carpenter, \"I am\nbound to repay two pennies which I borrowed in my youth; two I lend;\ntwo I lose; and two I spend.\" \"You must make this more clear,\" said the\nEmperor. \"My lord,\" he replied, \"listen to me. I am bound each day to\nrepay two pennies to my father; for when I was a boy my father expended\nupon me daily the like sum. Now he is poor, and needs my assistance,\nand therefore I return what I borrowed formerly. Two other pennies I\nlend to my son, who is pursuing his studies, in order that, if by any\nchance I should fall into poverty, he may restore the loan, just as I\nhave done to his grandfather. Again, I lose two pennies every day on my\nwife; for she is contradictious, wilful, and passionate. Now, because\nof this disposition, I account whatsoever is given to her entirely\nlost. Lastly, two other pennies I expend upon myself in meat and drink,\nI cannot do with less; nor can I obtain them without unremitting\nlabour. You now know the truth, and I pray you give a righteous\njudgment.\" \"Friend,\" said the Emperor, \"thou hast answered well. Go,\nand labour earnestly in thy calling.\" Soon after this the Emperor died,\nand Focus the carpenter, on account of his singular wisdom, was elected\nin his stead, by the unanimous choice of the whole nation. He governed\nas wisely as he had lived; and at his death his picture, bearing on the\nhead eight pennies, was reposited among the effigies of the deceased\nEmperors.\n\n'Application: My beloved, the Emperor is God, who appointed Sunday\nas a day of rest. By Virgil is typified the Holy Spirit, which\nordains a preacher to declare men's virtues and vices. Focus is any\ngood Christian who labours diligently in his vocation, and performs\nfaithfully every relative duty.'\n\nThe story has point and humour, but in the latter quality it is\nsurpassed by the next one, entitled _Confession_.\n\n'A certain Emperor, named Asmodeus, established an ordinance, by\nwhich every malefactor taken and brought before the judge should,\nif he distinctly declared three truths, against which no exception\ncould be taken, obtain his life and property. It chanced that a\ncertain soldier transgressed the law and fled. He hid himself in a\nforest, and there committed many atrocities, despoiling and slaying\nwhomsoever he could lay his hands upon. When the judge of the district\nascertained his haunt, he ordered the forest to be surrounded, and\nthe soldier to be seized and brought bound to the seat of judgment.\n\"You know the law,\" said the judge. \"I do,\" returned the other: \"If I\ndeclare three unquestionable truths, I shall be free; but if not, I\nmust die.\" \"True,\" replied the judge; \"take, then, advantage of the\nlaw's clemency, or this very day you shall not taste food until you\nare hanged.\" \"Cause silence to be kept,\" said the soldier. His wish\nbeing complied with, he proceeded in the following manner. \"The first\ntruth is this: I protest before ye all, that from my youth up I have\nbeen a bad man.\" The judge, hearing this, said to the bystanders:\n\"He says true, else he had not now been in this situation. Go on,\nthen,\" continued the judge; \"what is the second truth?\" \"I like not,\"\nexclaimed he, \"the dangerous situation in which I stand.\" \"Certainly,\"\nsaid the judge, \"we may credit thee. Now then for the third truth,\nand thou hast saved thy life.\" \"Why,\" he replied, \"if I once get out\nof this confounded place, I will never willingly re-enter it.\" \"Amen,\"\nsaid the judge, \"thy wit hath preserved thee; go in peace.\" And thus he\nwas saved.\n\n'Application: My beloved, the emperor is Christ. The soldier is any\nsinner; the judge is a wise confessor. If the sinner confess the truth\nin such a manner as not even demons can object, he shall be saved; that\nis, if he confess and repent.'\n\nThe 'Gesta' is a rich storehouse from which many poets, including\nGower, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Parnell, and others, have\nborrowed. Shakespeare's 'Pericles' has its source in the 'Gesta'; so\nalso Parnell's delightful poem, 'The Hermit,' and Dr. John Byrom's\n'Three Black Crows' are from the same prolific treasure-house.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[50] In the whole range of literature there are no apter similes than\nthese: the darkness and gloom of the fool's heart and the closeness of\nthe miser's fist.\n\n[51] A nobleman of the East, famous for his hospitality.\n\n[52] 'About a dozen instances or so must stand for the present as\nrepresenting the contribution of the J\u0101takas to the question of the\norigin of \u00c6sop's fables.'--Jacobs: 'History of Fable.'\n\n[53] In her 'Commonplace Book,' Longmans, 1854, pp. 142, 143.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nMODERN FABULISTS: LA FONTAINE, GAY.\n\n\n    'Lie gently on their ashes, gentle earth.'\n\n                        BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.\n\n\nIt is a remarkable circumstance in connection with the literature of\nfable, that those who have excelled in it are comparatively few. The\nprincipal names that occur to us are \u00c6sop, La Fontaine, Gay, Lessing,\nKrilof; 'the rest are all but leather or prunello,' if we except a few\nrare examples from Northcote and Cowper. The composition of fables\nseems to call for the exercise of a talent which is peculiar and\nrare. La Fontaine says[54] that the writing of apologues is a gift\nsent down from the immortals. Not even those who have practised the\nart have always succeeded in it to perfection. Gay, who is esteemed\nthe best of the English fabulists, is often prolix and lacking in\npoint. La Fontaine, sprightly as are his renderings of the ancient\nfables which he found ready to his hand, is weak and commonplace in\nhis attempts at originality. Dodsley is too didactic and goody-goody;\nNorthcote is stilted, and often unnatural. Even Krilof, admirable as he\ngenerally is, is sometimes darkly obscure, and his moral difficult to\nfind. Lessing comes nearest to the terseness and concentration of the\n\u00c6sopian model, but many of his so-called fables are better described as\nepigrams and witticisms. True, all these writers have sometimes, like\nthe Phrygian, 'hit the mark,' but oftener they have missed not only the\nbull's-eye, but the target itself; and the arrows of their satire are\nfrequently lost in the mazes of verbiage. \u00c6sop alone is in the fable\nwhat Shakespeare is in the drama, a paragon without a peer, and all\ncompetitors with either of these master minds must be content to take a\nlower place--to stand on a lower plane.\n\nExcellent as many modern fables fare, full of instruction and\nentertainment, it is but few of them that spontaneously recur to us in\nconnection with the affairs of daily life.\n\nAmongst modern fabulists, La Fontaine stands in the front rank. Jean\nde la Fontaine was born at Chateau-Thierry on July 8, 1621; died in\nParis, March 15, 1695,[55] in his seventy-fourth year; and was buried\nin the cemetery of St. Joseph, near the remains of his friend Moli\u00e8re.\nHe was one of the galaxy of great men and writers that adorned the\nage of Louis XIV. His fables, as is well known, are in verse, and\ninclude the best of those from ancient sources, with others of his own\ninvention. He may be said to have turned \u00c6sop into rhyme. The happy\nspirit of the genial Frenchman inspires them all. They are written with\na vivacity and sprightliness all his own, and these qualities, with the\nhumour which he infuses into them, make their perusal exhilarating and\nhealth-giving.\n\n'I have considered,' says he, 'that as these fables are already\nknown to all the world, I should have done nothing if I had not\nrendered them in some degree new, by clothing them with certain fresh\ncharacteristics. I have endeavoured to meet the wants of the day, which\nare novelty and gaiety; and by gaiety I do not mean merely that which\nexcites laughter, but a certain charm, an agreeable air, which may be\ngiven to every species of subject, even the most serious.'[56] He had\nattained to middle age before he found his true vocation in literature,\nhis first collection of fables in six books being published in 1668,\nwhen he was forty-seven years of age.\n\nLa Fontaine is well known in this country by the English translations\nof his work. A version containing some of his best fables was\npublished anonymously in 1820, but is known to be from the pen of John\nMatthews of Herefordshire. In his preface, Matthews states that the\nfables are not altogether a translation or an imitation of La Fontaine,\nbecause in most of them are allusions to public characters and the\nevents of the times, where they are suggested by the subject. These\nallusions are largely political. The fables, apart from these ephemeral\nreferences to personages and events, are written with great cleverness\nand vivacity, full of humour, and in many instances are well suited for\nrecitation.\n\n_The Fox and the Stork_ is a good example of his style:\n\n    'For sport once Renard, sly old sinner,\n    Press'd gossip Stork to share his dinner.\n    \"Neighbour, I must entreat you'll stay\n    And take your soup with me to-day.\n    My praise shall not my fare enhance,\n    But let me beg you'll take your chance;\n    You're kindly welcome were it better.\"\n    She yielded as he thus beset her,\n    And soon arrived the pottage smoking\n    In plates of shallow depth provoking.\n    'Twas vain the guest essay'd to fill\n    With unsubstantial fare her bill.\n    'Twas vain she fish'd to find a collop,\n    The host soon lapp'd the liquor all up.\n    Dame Stork conceal'd her deep displeasure,\n    But thought to find revenge at leisure;\n    And said, \"Ere long, my friend, you'll try\n    My humble hospitality.\n    I know your taste, and we'll contrive--\n    To-morrow I'm at home at five.\"\n    With punctual haste the wily scoffer\n    Accepts his neighbour's friendly offer,\n    And ent'ring cries, \"Dear Stork, how is it?\n    You see I soon return your visit,\n    I can't resist when you invite;\n    I've brought a famous appetite.\n    The steam which issues from your kitchen\n    Proves that your pot there's something rich in.\"\n    The Stork with civil welcome greeted,\n    And soon at table they were seated,\n    When lo! there came upon the board\n    Hash'd goose in two tall pitchers pour'd--\n    Pitchers whose long and narrow neck\n    Sly Renard's jaws completely check,\n    Whilst the gay hostess, much diverted,\n    Her bill with perfect ease inserted.\n    The Fox, half mad at this retorter,\n    Sought dinner in some other quarter.\n    Hoaxers, for you this tale is written,\n    Learn hence that biters may be bitten.'\n\nMatthews adds this note: '_Hoaxers, for you, this tale is written._\nThe word \"hoax,\" though sufficiently expressive, and admitted into\ngeneral use, has not, perhaps, found its way into the dictionaries.\nIt is, however, of some importance, as it serves in some measure\nto characterize the times we live in. Former periods have been\ndistinguished by the epithets golden, silver, brazen, iron.\nNotwithstanding the multiplicity of metals which chemistry has now\ndiscovered, none of them may be sufficiently descriptive of the manners\nof men in these days. Quitting, therefore, the ancient mode of\nclassification, the present may not be unaptly designated the hoaxing\nage. The term deserves a definition. A hoax may be said to be _a\npractical joke, calculated more or less to injure its object, sometimes\naccompanied by a high degree of criminality_. This definition, which\nis much at the service of future English lexicographers, includes not\nonly the minor essays of mischievous humour, which assembles all the\nschoolmasters of the Metropolis at one house; the medical professors\nand undertakers at another; the milliners, mantua-makers, and mercers\nat a third; whilst the street before the victim's door is blocked up by\ngrand pianofortes, Grecian couches, caravans of wild beasts, and patent\ncoffins; but also the more sublime strokes of genius, which would\nacquire sudden wealth by throwing Change Alley into an uproar--which\nwould gain excessive popularity by gulling the English people with\na show of mock patriotism--which can make bankrupts in fortune and\nreputation leaders of thousands and tens of thousands, so as to\nthreaten destruction to the State. The performers of all these notable\nexploits may be denominated hoaxers, most of whom may, in the end, find\nthemselves involved in the predicament expressed in the concluding\ncouplet of the fable.'\n\nWe are tempted to give another very fine example from Matthews,\ncontaining as it does an interesting reference to the two mighty men of\nletters of the first quarter of the present century--_The Viper and the\nFile:_\n\n    'A Viper chanc'd his head to pop\n    Into a neighbouring blacksmith's shop.\n    Long near the place had he been lurking,\n    And stayed till past the hours for working.\n    As with keen eyes he glanc'd around\n    In search of food, a File he found:\n    Of meats he saw no single item\n    Which tempted hungry jaws to bite 'em.\n    So with his fangs the eager fool\n    Attack'd the rough impassive tool;\n    And whilst his wounded palate bled,\n    Fancied on foreign gore he fed.\n      When thus the File retorted coolly:\n    \"Viper! this work's ingenious, truly!\n    No more those idle efforts try;\n    Proof 'gainst assaults like yours am I.\n    On me you'd fracture ev'ry bone;\n    I feel the teeth of Time alone.\"\n      Thus did a Poet,[57] vain and young\n    (Who since has palinody sung),\n    His fangs upon a Minstrel's lay[58]\n    Fix hard. 'Twas labour thrown away!\n    On that sweet Bard of Doric strain\n    This venom'd bite was tried in vain:\n    His flights, thro' no dark medium view'd,\n    Derive from fog no magnitude;\n    But bright and clear to charm our eyes\n    His vivid pictures boldly rise.\n    In painting manners, arms, and dress, sure\n    Time show'd him all his form and pressure.\n    Bard of the North! thou still shalt be\n    A File to Critics, harsh as he.\n    Tho' Time has teeth, thou need'st not fear 'em;\n    Thy verse defies old Edax Rerum!'\n\nIt must be confessed that the general moral here is not very obvious,\nthough the special application of the fable to the circumstances of\nByron's attack on Scott, and his subsequent recantation--with the\nfabulist's eulogy of the 'Bard of the North'--are expressed in charming\nand faultless verse.\n\nJohn Gay, who was born in the parish of Landkey, near Barnstaple,\nDevonshire, in 1685, and died in London, on December 4, 1732, aged\nforty-seven, is, without question, the best of the English fabulists.\nUnlike most writers in this department of literature, his fables are\nalmost all original. His language is choice and elegant, yet well\nsuited to his subject. His rhymes are perfect, and at times he almost\nrises into poetry. His fables, however, are lacking in humour, and they\nhave not that abounding _esprit_ and _na\u00efvet\u00e9_ which characterize La\nFontaine.\n\nGay was a writer of much industry,[59] producing during his lifetime\nalmost every species of composition. His 'Beggar's Opera' is yet\noccasionally seen on the stage, and this, after his fables, is his\nbest-known work.\n\nHe was essentially Bohemian in disposition and habits, and lacking in\nbusiness capacity; a man of culture, however, a pleasant companion,\nand a warm-hearted friend. He was on intimate terms with Pope, Swift,\nArbuthnot, and other distinguished men of letters and wits of his day,\nand the eccentric but kind-hearted Duchess of Queensberry was his\npatron and friend. Unfortunately, he was too much given to dangling\nat the skirts of the great, and sueing for place at Court instead of\ndepending on his own genius, which was unquestionably of no mean order.\nNotwithstanding this failing, he was no sycophant or flatterer, but\nexposed the follies and vices of human nature, as exemplified in the\ncharacters of the rich and great, as in those of the humbler ranks,\nwithout fear or favour. His best-known fables are probably _The Hare\nand many Friends_, and _The Miser and Plutus_.\n\nMany of Gay's lines, both from his fables and plays, have become widely\npopular, for example:\n\n    'Princes, like beauties, from their youth\n    Are strangers to the voice of truth.\n    Learn to contemn all praise betimes,\n    For Flattery's the nurse of crimes.'\n\n    'In every age and clime we see\n    Two of a trade can ne'er agree.'\n\n    'While there's life there's hope.'\n\n    'Those who in quarrels interpose\n    Must often wipe a bloody nose.'\n\n    'When a lady's in the case\n    You know all other things give place.'\n\n    'And what's a butterfly? At best\n    He's but a caterpillar dressed.'\n\n    ''Tis woman that seduces all mankind.'\n\n    'How happy could I be with either\n    Were t'other dear charmer away.'\n\nAnd his own epitaph, written by himself:\n\n    'Life's a jest, and all things show it;\n    I thought so once, and now I know it.'\n\nIn the letter to Pope in which this distich is given, he says: 'If\nanybody should ask how I could communicate this after death, let it be\nknown it is not meant so, but my present sentiments in life.'\n\nGay was buried in Westminster Abbey. The monument which marks his grave\nbears the well-known lines composed by Pope:\n\n    'Of manners gentle, of Affections mild,\n    In wit a Man, simplicity, a child;\n    With native Humour, temp'ring Virtuous Rage,\n    Formed to delight at once and lash the Age:\n    Above Temptation in a low Estate,\n    And uncorrupted, e'en among the great.\n    A safe Companion, and an easy Friend,\n    Unblam'd thro' life, lamented in thy End.\n    These are thy Honours! Not that here thy Bust\n    Is mix'd with Heroes, or with Kings thy Dust:\n    But that the Worthy and the Good shall say,\n    Striking their pensive bosoms,--here lies Gay.'\n\nThe piece we have selected, _The Miser and Plutus_, as an example\nof his work as a fabulist, is in his best style, and the moral is\nirreproachable:\n\n      'The wind was high, the window shakes,\n    With sudden start the Miser wakes;\n    Along the silent room he stalks,\n    Looks back, and trembles as he walks.\n    Each lock and every bolt he tries,\n    In every creek and corner pries;\n    Then opes the chest with treasure stor'd,\n    And stands in rapture o'er his hoard:\n    But now with sudden qualms possest,\n    He wrings his hands, he beats his breast;\n    By conscience stung he wildly stares,\n    And thus his guilty soul declares:\n      \"Had the deep earth her stores confin'd,\n    This heart had known sweet peace of mind.\n    But virtue's sold. Good gods! what price\n    Can recompense the pangs of vice?\n    O bane of good! seducing cheat!\n    Can man, weak man, thy power defeat?\n    Gold banish'd honour from the mind,\n    And only left the name behind;\n    Gold sow'd the world with every ill;\n    Gold taught the murderer's sword to kill.\n    'Twas gold instructed coward hearts\n    In treachery's more pernicious arts.\n    Who can recount the mischiefs o'er?\n    Virtue resides on earth no more!\"\n    He spoke, and sighed. In angry mood\n    Plutus, his god, before him stood.\n    The Miser, trembling, locked his chest;\n    The Vision frowned, and thus address'd:\n      \"Whence is this vile ungrateful rant,\n    Each sordid rascal's daily cant?\n    Did I, base wretch! corrupt mankind?\n    The fault's in thy rapacious mind.\n    Because my blessings are abused,\n    Must I be censur'd, curs'd, accus'd?\n    Ev'n virtue's self by knaves is made\n    A cloak to carry on the trade;\n    And power (when lodg'd in their possession)\n    Grows tyranny, and rank oppression.\n    Thus when the villain crams his chest,\n    Gold is the canker of the breast;\n    'Tis avarice, insolence, and pride,\n    And ev'ry shocking vice beside;\n    But when to virtuous hands 'tis given,\n    It blesses, like the dews of Heaven;\n    Like Heaven, it hears the orphan's cries,\n    And wipes the tears from widows' eyes.\n    Their crimes on gold shall misers lay,\n    Who pawn'd their sordid souls for pay?\n    Let bravos, then, when blood is spilt,\n    Upbraid the passive sword with guilt.\"'\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[54] In his dedication to Madame de Montespan.\n\n[55] Geruzez gives February 13 as the date of La Fontaine's death.\n\n[56] Preface, 'Fables,' 1668.\n\n[57] Byron.\n\n[58] Scott's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel.'\n\n[59] The opposite of this has been said, but without good reason. The\nnumber and variety of his productions attest his industry.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nMODERN FABULISTS: DODSLEY, NORTHCOTE.\n\n\n    'A tale may find him who a sermon flies.'\n\n                              GEORGE HERBERT.\n\n\nRobert Dodsley, born at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1703, died at\nDurham, December 25, 1764, buried in the abbey churchyard there, author\nof 'The Economy of Human Life' and other estimable works, compiled a\nvolume of fables (1761). This was the favourite collection in this\ncountry at the end of last and the beginning of the present century.\nThe contents of the volume are in three parts, and comprise 'Ancient\nFables,' 'Modern Fables,' and 'Fables Newly Invented.' The first two\ndivisions of the volume are \u00c6sopian in character. The fables contained\nin the last were not all written by Dodsley, some of them being\ncontributed, as he states in his preface, 'by authors with whom it is\nan honour to be connected, and who having condescended to favour him\nwith their assistance, have given him an opportunity of making some\natonement for his own defects.' It is to be regretted that he did not\ngive the names of the authors referred to. The work contains a life\nof \u00c6sop 'by a learned friend' (no name given),[60] and an excellent,\nthough somewhat pedantic, 'Essay on Fable.'\n\nThe following are three original fables from Dodsley's collection:\n\n'_The Miser and the Magpie._--As a miser sat at his desk counting over\nhis heaps of gold, a magpie eloped from his cage, picked up a guinea,\nand hopped away with it. The miser, who never failed to count his money\nover a second time, immediately missed the piece, and rising up from\nhis seat in the utmost consternation, observed the felon hiding it\nin a crevice of the floor. \"And art thou,\" cried he, \"that worst of\nthieves, who hast robbed me of my gold without the plea of necessity,\nand without regard to its proper use? But thy life shall atone for\nso preposterous a villainy.\" \"Soft words, good master!\" quoth the\nmagpie. \"Have I, then, injured you in any other sense than you defraud\nthe public? And am I not using your money in the same manner you do\nyourself? If I must lose my life for hiding a single guinea, what do\nyou, I pray, deserve, who secrete so many thousands?\"'\n\n'_The Toad and the Ephemeron._--As some workmen were digging in a\nmountain of Scythia, they discerned a toad of enormous size in the\nmidst of a solid rock. They were very much surprised at so uncommon an\nappearance, and the more they considered the circumstances of it, the\nmore their wonder increased. It was hard to conceive by what means the\ncreature had preserved life and received nourishment in so narrow a\nprison, and still more difficult to account for his birth and existence\nin a place so totally inaccessible to all of his species. They could\nconclude no other than that he was formed together with the rock in\nwhich he had been bred, and was coeval with the mountain itself. While\nthey were pursuing these speculations, the toad sat swelling and\nbloating till he was ready to burst with pride and self-importance,\nto which at last he thus gave vent: \"Yes,\" says he, \"you behold in me\na specimen of the antediluvian race of animals. I was begotten before\nthe flood; and who is there among the present upstart race of mortals\nthat shall dare to contend with me in nobility of birth or dignity of\ncharacter?\" An ephemeron, sprung that morning from the river Hypanis,\nas he was flying about from place to place, chanced to be present, and\nobserved all that passed with great attention and curiosity. \"Vain\nboaster,\" says he, \"what foundation hast thou for pride, either in thy\ndescent, merely because it is ancient, or thy life, because it hath\nbeen long? What good qualities hast thou received from thy ancestors?\nInsignificant even to thyself, as well as useless to others, thou\nart almost as insensible as the block in which thou wast bred. Even\nI, that had my birth only from the scum of the neighbouring river,\nat the rising of this day's sun, and who shall die at its setting,\nhave more reason to applaud my condition than thou hast to be proud\nof thine. I have enjoyed the warmth of the sun, the light of the day,\nand the purity of the air; I have flown from stream to stream, from\ntree to tree, and from the plain to the mountain; I have provided for\nposterity, and shall leave behind me a numerous offspring to people\nthe next age of to-morrow; in short, I have fulfilled all the ends of\nmy being, and I have been happy. My whole life, 'tis true, is but of\ntwelve hours, but even one hour of it is to be preferred to a thousand\nyears of mere existence, which have been spent, like thine, in sloth,\nignorance and stupidity.\"'\n\n'_The Bee and the Spider._--On the leaves and flowers of the same\nshrub, a spider and a bee pursued their several occupations, the one\ncovering her thighs with honey, the other distending his bag with\npoison. The spider, as he glanced his eye obliquely at the bee, was\nruminating with spleen on the superiority of her productions. \"And how\nhappens it,\" said he, in a peevish tone, \"that I am able to collect\nnothing but poison from the selfsame plant that supplies thee with\nhoney? My pains and industry are not less than thine; in those respects\nwe are each indefatigable.\" \"It proceeds only,\" replied the bee, \"from\nthe different disposition of our nature; mine gives a pleasing flavour\nto everything I touch, whereas thine converts to poison what by a\ndifferent process had been the purest honey.\"'\n\nJames Northcote, R.A., the indefatigable painter, who, when a youth,\nenjoyed the friendship of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and was occasionally one\nof the company at his hospitable table, along with Johnson, Goldsmith,\nBurke, Garrick and Boswell, published two volumes of original and\nselected fables in 1828-33, when he was eighty-two years of age. When a\nboy, living at Plymouth, where he was born on October 22, 1746, he took\npleasure in copying the pictures from an edition of \u00c6sop's fables. The\nmemory of these clung to him through life, and, as occasion offered,\nhe occupied himself in composing apologues in imitation of those with\nwhich he was familiar in his early years.\n\nThe diction of Northcote's fables is admirable. They are in the\nchoicest phraseology, both in their verse and prose, for he practised\nboth forms of composition, though chiefly the latter. Neither crisp nor\nbrilliant, they are now and again lighted up with scintillations of\nhumour. His applications are delivered with grave solemnity befitting a\njudge or a philosopher--not to say a bore; and in many instances they\nextend to three or four times the length of the fable itself.\n\nNorthcote died in London at the ripe age of eighty-five, and was buried\nbeneath the New Church of St. Marylebone.\n\nPerhaps his best fables are _The Jay and the Owl_, _Echo and the\nParrot_, _Stone Broth_, and _The Trooper and his Armour_. None of\nNorthcote's fables have become popular with the multitude, though\nmany of them are good examples of this class of composition. We give\nthe last-named piece as a specimen of his work as a fabulist. The\napplication is well conceived, but it is scarcely indicated in the\nfable:\n\n'A trooper, in the time of battle, picked up the shoe of a horse that\nlay in his way, and quickly by a cord suspended it from his neck. Soon\nafter, in a skirmish with the enemy, a shot struck exactly on the said\nhorseshoe and saved his life,[61] as it fell harmless to the ground.\n\"Well done,\" said the trooper, \"I see that a very little armour is\nsufficient when it is well placed.\"\n\n'Application: Although the trooper's good luck with his bit of armour\nmay appear to be the effect of chance, yet certain it is that prudent\npersons are always prepared to receive good fortune, or may be said to\nmeet it half-way, turning every accident if possible to good, which\ngives an appearance as if they were the favourites of fortune; whilst\nthe thoughtless and improvident, on the contrary, often neglect to\nembrace the very blessings which chance throws in their way, and then\nsurvey with envy those who prosper by their careful and judicious\nconduct, and blame their partial or hard fortune for all those\nprivations and sufferings which their mismanagement alone has brought\nupon themselves.'\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[60] It has been suggested, that Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith were the\n'authors,' and Goldsmith the 'learned friend.' See the preface by Edwin\nPearson to the 1871 edition, of Bewick's 'Select Fables of \u00c6sop.'\n\n[61] Northcote's grammar is at fault here.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nMODERN FABULISTS: LESSING, YRIARTE, KRILOF.\n\n\n    'Great thoughts, great feelings, come to them\n    Like instincts, unawares.'\n\n                                    R. M. MILNES.\n\n\nGotthold Ephraim Lessing, born January 22, 1729, at Kamenz, died\nFebruary 15, 1781, aged fifty-two years, was a distinguished German\nscholar, poet and dramatist. As a fabulist, Lessing is noted for\nepigrammatic point rather than humour, though he is by no means lacking\nin the latter characteristic. He is perhaps the most original writer\nof fables amongst the moderns. Sagacious, wise, witty, his apologues\n(1759) have nothing superfluous about them. They are nearly all brief,\npithy, and very much to the point. In these respects they follow the\n\u00c6sopian model more than those of any other modern writer. The following\nare good examples of his style:\n\n'_\u00c6sop and the Ass._--\"The next time you write a fable about me,\" said\nthe donkey to \u00c6sop, \"make me say something wise and sensible.\"\n\n'\"Something sensible from you!\" exclaimed \u00c6sop; \"what would the world\nthink? People would call you the sage, and me the donkey!\"\n\n'_The Shepherd and the Nightingale._--\"Sing to me, dearest\nnightingale,\" said a shepherd to the silent songstress one beautiful\nspring evening.\n\n'\"Alas!\" said the nightingale, \"the frogs make so much noise that I\nhave no inclination to sing. Do you not hear them?\"\n\n'\"Undoubtedly I hear them,\" replied the shepherd, \"but it is owing to\nyour silence.\"\n\n'_Solomon's Ghost._--A venerable old man, despite his years and the\nheat of the day, was ploughing his field with his own hand, and sowing\nthe grain in the willing earth, in anticipation of the harvest it would\nproduce.\n\n'Suddenly, beneath the deep shadow of a spreading oak, a divine\napparition stood before him! The old man was seized with affright.\n\n'\"I am Solomon,\" said the phantom encouragingly, \"what dost thou here,\nold friend?\"\n\n'\"If thou art Solomon,\" said the owner of the field, \"how canst thou\nask? In my youth I learnt from the ant to be industrious and to\naccumulate wealth. That which I then learnt I now practise.\"\n\n'\"Thou hast learnt but half of thy lesson,\" pursued the spirit. \"Go\nonce more to the ant, and she will teach thee to rest in the winter of\nthy existence, and enjoy what thou hast earned.\"'\n\nDon Tomas de Yriarte, or Iriarte, a Spanish fabulist of the eighteenth\ncentury, born at Teneriffe in 1750, is held in much esteem by cultured\nreaders in Spain. His 'Fabulas Literarias,' or Literary Fables (1782),\nsixty-seven in all, and mostly original, were written with a view to\ninculcating literary truths. In other words, their object was to praise\nor censure literary work according to its supposed deserts. Their\nmoral or application is therefore limited in scope; they do not touch\nhuman nature as a whole, and being thus restricted in their range,\nthey are deficient in general interest and value. Obviously, however,\nit is possible to give a wider application to the truths enforced in\nthe apologues, and this is sometimes done by omitting the special\nmoral supplied by the writer. Yriarte's versification is graceful and\nsprightly, 'combining the exquisite simplicity of the old Spanish\nromances and songs with the true spirit of \u00c6sopian fable;'[62] some\nof them are composed in the redondilla measure much affected by the\nlyrical poets of Spain, and please by their style quite as much as by\ntheir intrinsic merits. Yriarte died in 1791. We select the piece which\nfollows to illustrate his skill as a fabulist:\n\n\n'_The Two Thrushes._\n\n    'A sage old thrush was once discipling\n    His grandson thrush, a hair-brained stripling,\n    In the purveying art. He knew,\n    He said, where vines in plenty grew,\n    Whose fruit delicious when he'd come\n    He might attack _ad libitum_.\n      \"Ha!\" said the young one, \"where's this vine?\n    Let's see this fruit you think so fine.\"\n    \"Come then, my child, your fortune's great; you\n    Can't conceive what feasts await you!\"\n    He said, and gliding through the air\n    They reached a vine, and halted there.\n      Soon as the grapes the youngster spied,\n    \"Is this the fruit you praise?\" he cried;\n    \"Why, an old bird, sir, as you are,\n    Should judge, I think, more wisely far\n    Than to admire, or hold as good,\n    Such half-grown, small, and worthless food.\n    Come, see a fruit which I possess\n    In yonder garden; you'll confess,\n    When you behold it, that it is\n    Bigger and better far than this.\"\n    \"I'll go,\" he said; \"but ere I see\n    This fruit of yours, whate'er it be,\n    I'm sure it is not worth a stone\n    Or grape-skin from my vines alone.\"\n      They reached the spot the thrushlet named,\n    And he triumphantly exclaimed:\n    \"Show me the fruit to equal mine!\n    A size so great, a shape so fine;\n    What luxury, however rare,\n    Can e'en your grapes with this compare?\"\n    The old bird stared, as well he might,\n    For lo! a pumpkin met his sight.\n      Now, that a thrush should take this fancy\n    Without much marvelling I can see;\n    But it is truly monstrous when\n    Men, who are held as learned men,\n    All books, whatever they be, despise\n    Unless of largest bulk and size.\n    A book is great, if good at all;\n    If bad, it cannot be too small.'\n\nIvan Andreivitch Krilof, or Krilov, the Russian, who was born in\nMoscow, February 2, 1768, O.S., and died in St. Petersburg on November\n9, 1844, aged seventy-six years, was one of the greatest original\nfabulists of modern times. One writer (an Englishman) goes so far as to\nclaim for him the position of 'the crowned King of the fabulists of all\nlanguages.' His published fables amount altogether to two hundred and\ntwo, of which thirty-five only are borrowed, the rest being original.\nThey are in rhymed verse in the Russian, and an English translation,\nalso in verse, and with a close adherence to the text in the original,\nhas been made by Mr. J. Henry Harrison.[63] An excellent prose\ntranslation, with a life of Krilof, by the late Mr. W. R. S. Ralston,\nM.A., was published in 1868.[64]\n\nKrilof is characterized by rich common sense and sound judgment, a\nrare vein of satire and an excellent humour. He indeed brims over\nwith sarcastic humour. A kind of rugged directness of language, well\ncalculated to undermine the shams and abuses at which he aimed, also\ndistinguishes his apologues. He deserves to be better known in this\ncountry.\n\nKrilof was a journalist, and wrote a number of dramas, both in tragedy\nand comedy, before turning his attention to fables. It is on these\nlatter that his claim to distinction rests. He rose to high eminence\nin his native country, where his name is a household word; he was\npatronized by royalty, and beloved by the common people, and at his\ndeath a monument to his memory was erected in the Summer Garden at St.\nPetersburg.\n\nThe following translation of Krilof's beautiful fable of _The Leaves\nand the Roots_ is from a brilliant article in _Fraser's Magazine_ for\nFebruary, 1839:\n\n    ''Twas on a sunny summer day,\n    Exulting in the flickering shade\n    They cast athwart the greensward glade,\n    The leaves, a fluttering host,\n    Thus 'gan their worth to boast,\n    And to each other say:\n        \"Is it not we\n        That deck the tree--\n    Its stem and branches all array\n    In verdant pomp and vigorous grace?\n    Deprived of us, how altered were their case!\n    Is it not we who form the grateful screen\n    Of foliage and luxuriant green,\n        Welcome to traveller and to swain?\n        Yes! we may be deem\u00e9d vain,\n    But we it is whose charms invite\n        Youths and maidens to the grove;\n    And we it is, too, who at night\n        Shelter in her retired alcove\n        The songstress of the woods, whose strain\n        Wafts music over dale and plain!\n    In us the zephyrs most rejoice:\n    Our emerald beauty to caress,\n    On silken wings they fondly press!\"\n        \"Most true; but yet\n        You ought not to forget\n    We too exist,\" replied a voice\n    That issued from the earth;\n    \"We sure possess some little worth.\"\n    \"And who are ye? where do ye grow?\"\n    \"Buried are we here below,\n    Deep in the ground. 'Tis we who nourish\n    The stem and you, and make you flourish:\n    For understand, we are the roots\n    From whom the tree itself upshoots:\n    'Tis we by whom you thrive--\n    From whom your beauty ye derive;\n    Unlike to you, we are not fair,\n    Nor dwell we in the upper air;\n    Yet do we not, like you, decay--\n    Winter tears us not away.\n    Ye fall, yet still remains the tree;\n    But should it chance that _we_\n    Once cease to live, adieu\n    Both to the tree, fair leaves, and you!\"'\n\nAs an example of his ironical humour we give a prose translation, by\nMr. Ralston, of his fable _The Geese_:\n\n'A peasant, with a long rod in his hand, was driving some geese to\na town where they were to be sold; and, to tell the truth, he did\nnot treat them over-politely. In hopes of making a good bargain, he\nwas hastening on so as not to lose the market-day (and when gain is\nconcerned, geese and men alike are apt to suffer). I do not blame the\npeasant; but the geese talked about him in a different spirit, and,\nwhenever they met any passers-by, abused him to them in such terms as\nthese:\n\n'\"Is it possible to find any geese more unfortunate than we are? This\nmoujik[65] harasses us so terribly, and chases us about just as if we\nwere common geese. The ignoramus does not know that he ought to pay us\nreverence, seeing that we are the noble descendants of those geese to\nwhom Rome was once indebted for her salvation, and in whose honour even\nfeast-days were specially appointed there.\"\n\n'\"And do you want to have honour paid you on that account?\" a passer-by\nasked them.\n\n'\"Why, our ancestors----\"\n\n'\"I know that--I have read all about it; but I want to know this: of\nwhat use have you been yourselves?\"\n\n'\"Why, our ancestors saved Rome!\"\n\n'\"Quite so; but what have you done?\"\n\n'\"We? Nothing.\"\n\n'\"Then, what merit is there in you? Let your ancestors rest in\npeace--they justly received honourable reward; but you, my friends, are\nonly fit to be roasted!\"'\n\nKrilof concludes: 'It would be easy to make this fable still more\nintelligible; but I am afraid of irritating the geese.'\n\nA story, rather than a fable, is _The Man with Three Wives_, and\nthe moral underlying it is in the author's peculiar vein. This is\ntranslated from the original by Mr. J. H. Harrison:\n\n    'A certain vanquisher of women's hearts,\n    While still his first wife was alive and well,\n    Married a second, and a third. They tell\n    The king the scandal of such shameless arts,\n    And, as his majesty abhorred all vice,\n        Given himself to self-denial,\n        He gave the order in a trice\n        To bring the bigamist to trial,\n    And such a punishment invent, that none\n    Should evermore dare do what he had done.\n    \"And if the punishment to me should seem too small,\n    Around their table will I hang the judges all.\"\n        This to the judges seemed no joke:\n        The cold sweat ran along each spine.\n    Three days and nights they sit, but can't divine\n    What punishment will best such lawless license choke.\n    Thousands of punishments there are; but then,\n        As all men of experience know,\n    They cannot keep from evil evil men.\n    This time kind Providence did help them though,\n    And when the culprit came before the court,\n        This was his sentence short:\n    To give him back his three wives all together.\n    The people wondered much at this decision,\n    And thought the judges' lives hung by a feather;\n        But three days had not passed before\n        The bigamist, behind his door,\n    Himself hung to a peg with great precision:\n    And then the sentence wrought on all great fear,\n    And much the morals of the kingdom steadied,\n    For from that time its annalists are clear\n    That no man in it more has three wives wedded.'\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[62] Bouterwick's 'History of Spanish Literature,' book iii., chap. iii.\n\n[63] London: Remington and Co., 1883.\n\n[64] London: Strahan and Co., 1868. A second edition appeared the year\nfollowing.\n\n[65] Peasant.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nOTHER AND OCCASIONAL FABULISTS.\n\n\n                      'With wisdom fraught,\n    Not such as books, but such as Nature taught.'\n\n                                          WALLER.\n\n\nSir Roger L'Estrange (1616-1704) was a rabid Jacobite, journalist, and\npamphleteer, and during a long life spent in fierce political conflict,\nin which, at times, he bore a far from estimable part, found time to\ntranslate various classical works, amongst these being \u00c6sop's fables.\nL'Estrange's version (1692) of the sage is not in the best taste.\nIt is disfigured by mannerisms and vulgarisms in language, and the\napplications which he appended to the fables are often a distortion of\nthe true intent of the apologue, stated so as to support and enforce\nhis own peculiar views in politics and religion.\n\nSteele (1672-1729) was the author of at least one excellent fable,[66]\n_The Mastiff and his Puppy_, not unworthy to take a place beside those\nof the Greek sage:\n\n'It happened one day, as a stout and honest mastiff (that guarded the\nvillage where he lived against thieves and robbers) was very gravely\nwalking with one of his puppies by his side, all the little dogs in\nthe street gathered round him, and barked at him. The little puppy was\nso offended at this affront done to his sire, that he asked him why he\nwould not fall upon them, and tear them to pieces. To which the sire\nanswered with great composure of mind, \"If there were no curs, I should\nbe no mastiff.\"'\n\nOf other fabulists, it will be sufficient, without going into lengthy\nparticulars, to name Allan Ramsay (1686-1758), who attempted the\nwriting of fables, though with but doubtful success; of the thirty he\nproduced there is not one of striking merit. Edmund Arwaker, Rector of\nDonaghmore, who compiled a collection of two hundred and twenty-five\nselect fables from \u00c6sop and others, which he entitled, 'Truth in\nFiction; or, Morality in Masquerade' (1708). John Hall-Stevenson,\n1718-1785 (the original of Sterne's 'Eugenius'), wrote 'Fables for\nGrown Gentlemen.' Edward Moore composed a series of original 'Fables\nfor the Fair Sex' (1756), pleasing in their versification, but\notherwise of no striking merit. Moore, besides a number of poems,\nodes and songs, wrote two comedies ('The Foundling' and 'Gil Blas')\nand a tragedy ('The Gamester'), in which Garrick acted the leading\ncharacters. He was also editor of the _World_, a satirical journal of\nthe period, which had a brief life of four years. He died in poverty\nin 1751. Francis Gentleman (actor and dramatist), whose collection of\n'Royal Fables' (1766) was dedicated to George, Prince of Wales. William\nWilkie, D.D., a Scotch fabulist of some note in his day, was Professor\nof Natural Philosophy in St. Andrews University. In 1768 he published a\nvolume containing sixteen fables after the manner of Gay. One of these,\n_The Boy and the Rainbow_,[67] a fable of considerable merit, has\nsurvived; the others are forgotten. Rev. Henry Rowe, whose fables tire\nwithout interesting. 'Fables for Mankind,' by Charles Westmacott. 'The\nFables of Flora,' by Dr. Langhorne. Gaspey wrote a number of original\nfables, as did also Dr. Aitken and Walter Brown. Cowper, the poet,\npenned some elegant fables with which most readers are familiar. There\nare 'Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse,' by W. E.\nStaite (1830); Sheridan Wilson was the author of a volume entitled 'The\nBath Fables' (1850); finally, there is Frere's Fables for 'Five Years\nOld.' \u00c6sop's fables have been parodied and caricatured, with varying\nsuccess, by different writers, notably by an American author, under\nthe pseudonym of 'G. Washington \u00c6sop.'\n\nOf lady fabulists, the most notable is Maria de France, who lived in\nthe first half of the thirteenth century, and made a collection of one\nhundred and six fables in French, which, she alleges, were translated\nfrom the English of King Alfred.[68] There are several more modern\ncollections by members of the fair sex. One is entitled 'The Enchanted\nPlants, Fables in Verse;' London, 1800. The name of the author is not\ngiven, but evidently a lady. Mrs. Trimmer has her version of \u00c6sop. A\nvolume of original fables was published by Mary Maria Colling, a writer\nof humble rank, under the patronage of the once celebrated Mrs. Bray\n(daughter of Thomas Stothard, R.A.), and Southey, the Poet Laureate. A\nvolume of fables, also original, by Mrs. Prosser, and '\u00c6sop's Fables in\nWords of One Syllable,' by Mary Godolphin.\n\nBesides the fabulists already named, there are, among the ancients,\nAvian, Ademar, Rufus, Romulus, Alfonso and Poggio. Among the French,\nNivernois, and the Abb\u00e9 F\u00e9nelon (1651-1715), author of 'Dialogues of\nthe Dead' and 'Telemachus.' Notwithstanding his reputation in his\nown country as a fabulist, it must be allowed that his fables are\nmuch too lengthy and prolix. The characters he gives to his animals\nare unnatural, and their manners and speech pointless and tame.\nFlorian, an imitator of Yriarte, and a friend of Voltaire, by whose\nadvice he cultivated the literature of Spain; Boursalt, Boisard,\nGinguene, Jauffret, Le Grand and Armoult. Amongst the Germans are,\nGellert (1746), Nicolai, Hagedorn, Pfeffel and Lichtner. The Italian\nfabulists are numerous: Tommaso Crudeli (1703-1743), Gian-Carlo\nPasseroni (1713-1803), Giambattisti Roberti (1719-1786), Luigi Grillo\n(1725-1790), Lorenzo Pignotti (1739-1812), who with an elegant diction\ncombines splendid descriptive powers; Clemente Bondi (1742-1821),\nAurelio de Giorgi Bertola (1753-1798), Luigi Clasio (1754-1825),\nGiovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754-1827), Gaetano Perego (1814-1868) and\nGaetano Polidori. Among Spanish fabulists, besides Yriarte, there is\nSamaniego (1745-1801). Of Russian writers of fables we have already\nspoken of Krilof, and there are besides, Chemnitzer, Dmitriev, Glinka,\nLomonosov (1711-1765), Goncharov and Alexander Sumarakov (1718-1777).\nOf English writers not already referred to, the following may be named\nas having tried their hand at the composition of fables: Addison, Sir\nJohn Vanbrugh,[69] Prior, Goldsmith, Henryson, Coyne, Winter. Thomas\nPercival, M.D., President of the Literary and Philosophical Society\nof Manchester about the end of last century, wrote a volume of moral\ntales, fables, and reflections. Bussey's collection is well known. The\nlate W. J. Macquorn Rankine, Regius Professor of Civil Engineering in\nGlasgow University, wrote a number of 'Songs and Fables,' which were\npublished posthumously in a small volume in 1874. The fables, twelve\nin all, are an ingenious attempt, not wanting in playful humour, to\nelucidate the origin and meaning of some of the old and well-known\nsignboards, such as _The Pig and Whistle_, _The Cat and Fiddle_, _The\nGoat and Compasses_, and others. An interesting collection of one\nhundred and six 'Indian Fables,' in English, the materials for which\nwere gathered from native sources and put into form by Mr. P. V.\nRamaswami Raju, B.A., were originally contributed to the columns of the\n_Leisure Hour_, and afterwards published in a volume (1887).[70]\n\nSpecimens of the work of some of the writers named are given in the\nsucceeding pages.\n\n_The Bee and the Coquette_ (Florian).--'Chloe, young, handsome, and a\ndecided coquette, laboured very hard every morning on rising; people\nsay it was at her toilet; and there, smiling and smirking, she related\nto her dear confidant all her pains, her pleasures, and the projects of\nher soul.\n\n'A thoughtless bee, entering her chamber, began buzzing about. \"Help!\nhelp!\" immediately shrieked the lady. \"Lizzy! Mary! here, make haste!\ndrive away this winged monster!\"\n\n'The insolent insect settling on Chloe's lips, she fainted; and Mary,\nfuriously seizing the bee, prepared to crush it.\n\n'\"Alas!\" gently exclaimed the unfortunate insect, \"forgive my error;\nChloe's mouth seemed to me a rose, and as such I kissed it.\"\n\n'This speech restored Chloe to her senses: \"Let us forgive it,\" said\nshe, \"on account of its candid confession! Besides, its sting is but a\ntrifle; since it has spoken to you, I have scarcely felt it.\"\n\n'What may one not effect by a little well-timed flattery?'\n\n\n_The Farmer, Horseman, and Pedestrian_ (Nivernois).\n\n    'A farmer on his ass astride,\n    Who peacefully pursued his ride,\n    Exclaim'd, when, on a Spanish steed,\n    A horseman pass'd with lively speed,\n    \"Ah, charming seat! what deed of mine\n    Should thus incense the powers divine,\n    Who doom me ne'er to shift my place,\n    But at an ass's tardy pace?\"\n      Thus speaking, with chagrin and spite,\n    He reach'd a rough and rocky height,\n    Up which a poor, o'er-labour'd drudge,\n    On tottering feet, was forc'd to trudge;\n    With forehead prone, and bending back\n    Press'd by a large and heavy pack.\n      The farmer cross'd the hill at ease;\n    Jocosely set, with lolling knees,\n    On his poor ass, the rugged scene\n    Appear'd a soft and level green,\n    No flinty points his feet annoy'd;\n    He pass'd the panting walker's side,\n    Yet saw him not, so rapt his brain\n    With dreams of Andalusia's plain.\n      Such is the world--our bosoms brood\n    With keen desire o'er others' good;\n    On this we muse, and, musing still,\n    We rarely dream of others' ill.\n      A further truth the tale unfolds:\n    Each, like the ass-born hind, beholds\n    The rich around on steeds of Spain,\n    And deems their rank exempt from pain.\n    But still let us our notice keep\n    On those who clamber up the steep.'\n\n_The Land of the Halt_ (Gellert).--'Many years since, in a small\nterritory, there was not one of the inhabitants who did not stutter\nwhen he spoke, and halt in walking; both these defects, moreover, were\nconsidered accomplishments. A stranger saw the evil, and, thinking how\nthey would admire his walking, went about without halting, after the\nusual manner of our race. Everyone stopped to look at him, and all\nthose who looked, laughed, and, holding their sides to repress their\nmerriment, shouted: \"Teach the stranger how to walk properly!\"\n\n'The stranger considered it his duty to cast the reproach from himself.\n\"You halt,\" he cried, \"it is not I; you must accustom yourselves to\nleave off so awkward a habit!\" This only increased the uproar, when\nthey heard him speak; he did not even stammer; this was sufficient to\ndisgrace him, and he was laughed at throughout the country.\n\n'Habit will render faults, which we have been accustomed to regard from\nyouth, beautiful; in vain will a stranger attempt to convince us that\nwe are in error. We look upon him as a madman, solely because he is\nwiser than ourselves.'\n\n\n_The Beau and Butterfly_ (Francis Gentleman).\n\n    'Thus speaks an adage, somewhat old,\n    \"_Truth is not to be always told_.\"\n    What eye but, struck with outward show,\n    Admires the pretty thing, a beau?\n    Which both by Art and Nature made is,\n    The sport of sense, the toy of ladies.\n      A mortal of this tiny mould,\n    In clothes of silk, adorned with gold,\n    And dressed in ev'ry point of sight\n    To give the world of taste delight,\n    Prepared to enter his sedan,\n    A birthday picture of a man,\n    Cried out in vain soliloquy:\n    \"Was ever creature formed like me?\n    By Art or Nature's nicest care\n    Made more complete and debonnair?\n    I see myself, with perfect joy,\n    Of human kind the _je ne s\u00e7ai quoy_;\n    In ev'rything I rival France,\n    In fashion, wit, and sprightly dance;\n    So charming are my shape and parts,\n    I'm formed for captivating hearts;\n    The proudest toast, when in the vein,\n    I take at once by _coup de main_;\n    _Mort de ma vie_, 'tis magic all,\n    I look, and vanquished women fall!\"\n      One of the race of butterflies,\n    An insect far more nice than wise,\n    Who, from his sunny couch of glass,\n    Had listened to the two-legged ass,\n    With intermeddling zeal replied:\n    \"Unequalled folly! matchless pride!\n    Shalt thou, a patchwork creature, claim\n    More lovely shape, or greater name,\n    Than one of us? Assert thy right--\n    Stand naked in my critic sight!\n      \"To parent earth at once resign\n    The produce of her golden mine;\n    Give to the worm her silken store,\n    The diamond to Golconda's shore;\n    Nor let the many teeth you want\n    Be plundered from the elephant;\n    Let native locks adorn thy head,\n    Nor glow thy cheeks with borrowed red;\n    Give to the ostrich back his plume,\n    Nor rob the cat of her perfume;\n    Here to the beaver yield at once\n    His fur which crowns thy empty sconce;\n    In short, appear through every part\n    No more, nor less, than what thou art;\n    Then little better than an ape\n    Will show thy metamorphosed shape;\n    While butterflies to death retain\n    The beauties they from Nature gain.\n      \"You'll say, perhaps, our sojourn here\n    Is less, by half, than half a year;\n    That churlish winter surely brings\n    Destruction to our painted wings.\n    I grant the truth. Now, answer me:\n    Can beaus outlive adversity?\n    Will milliners and tailors join\n    To make a foppish beggar fine?\n    'Tis certain, no. Of glitter made,\n    You surely vanish in the shade.\n    Compared, then, who will dare deny\n    A beau is less than butterfly?\"'\n\n\n_The Nightingale and Glow-worm_ (Edward Moore).\n\n    'The prudent nymph, whose cheeks disclose\n    The lily and the blushing rose,\n    From public view her charms will screen,\n    And rarely in the crowd be seen.\n    This simple truth shall keep her wise:\n    \"The fairest fruits attract the flies.\"\n      One night a glow-worm, proud and vain,\n    Contemplating her glitt'ring train,\n    Cried, \"Sure there never was in Nature\n    So elegant, so fine a creature;\n    All other insects that I see--\n    The frugal ant, industrious bee,\n    Or silk-worm--with contempt I view;\n    With all that low, mechanic crew\n    Who servilely their lives employ\n    In business, enemy to joy.\n    Mean, vulgar herd! ye are my scorn,\n    For grandeur only I was born;\n    Or, sure, am sprung from race divine,\n    And placed on earth to live and shine.\n    Those lights, that sparkle so on high,\n    Are but the glow-worms of the sky;\n    And kings on earth their gems admire\n    Because they imitate my fire.\"\n      She spoke. Attentive on a spray,\n    A nightingale forebore his lay;\n    He saw the shining morsel near,\n    And flew, directed by the glare;\n    Awhile he gazed, with sober look,\n    And thus the trembling prey bespoke:\n      \"Deluded fool, with pride elate,\n    Know 'tis thy beauty brings thy fate;\n    Less dazzling, long thou mightst have lain,\n    Unheeded on the velvet plain.\n    Pride, soon or late, degraded mourns,\n    And beauty wrecks whom she adorns.\"'\n\nIt is interesting to observe how a true poet, Cowper, treats the same\nsubject, the object or moral of the fable, however, being different:\n\n\n_The Nightingale and Glow-worm._\n\n    'A nightingale, that all day long\n    Had cheer'd the village with his song,\n    Nor yet at eve his note suspended,\n    Nor yet when eventide was ended,\n    Began to feel, as well he might,\n    The keen demands of appetite;\n    When, looking eagerly around,\n    He spied far off, upon the ground,\n    A something shining in the dark,\n    And knew the glow-worm by his spark;\n    So, stooping down from hawthorn top,\n    He thought to put him in his crop.\n    The worm, aware of his intent,\n    Harangued him thus, right eloquent:\n    \"Did you admire my lamp,\" quoth he,\n    \"As much as I your minstrelsy,\n    You would abhor to do me wrong,\n    As much as I to spoil your song;\n    For 'twas the selfsame Power Divine\n    Taught you to sing and me to shine;\n    That you with music, I with light,\n    Might beautify and cheer the night.\"\n      The songster heard his short oration,\n    And, warbling out his approbation,\n    Released him--as my story tells--\n    And found a supper somewhere else.\n      Hence jarring sectaries may learn\n    Their real interest to discern;\n    That brother should not war with brother,\n    And worry and devour each other;\n    But sing and shine by sweet consent,\n    Till life's poor transient night is spent,\n    Respecting in each other's case\n    The gifts of nature and of grace.\n      Those Christians best deserve the name\n    Who studiously make peace their aim;\n    Peace both the duty and the prize\n    Of him that creeps and him that flies.'\n\nOther excellent fables of Cowper will occur to the reader, as, for\nexample: _The Raven_, _The Contest between Nose and Eyes_, _The Poet,\nthe Oyster and the Sensitive Plant_, and _Pairing Time Anticipated_.\n\n\n_The Boy and the Rainbow_ (William Wilkie, D.D.).\n\n    'Declare, ye sages, if ye find\n    'Mongst animals of every kind,\n    Of each condition, sort, and size,\n    From whales and elephants to flies,\n    A creature that mistakes his plan,\n    And errs so constantly as man.\n    Each kind pursues his proper good,\n    And seeks for pleasure, rest, and food,\n    As Nature points, and never errs\n    In what it chooses and prefers;\n    Man only blunders, though possest\n    Of talents far above the rest.\n      Descend to instances, and try:\n    An ox will scarce attempt to fly,\n    Or leave his pasture in the wood\n    With fishes to explore the flood.\n    Man only acts, of every creature,\n    In opposition to his nature.\n    The happiness of humankind\n    Consists in rectitude of mind,\n    A will subdued to reason's sway,\n    And passions practised to obey;\n    An open and a gen'rous heart,\n    Refined from selfishness and art;\n    Patience which mocks at fortune's pow'r,\n    And wisdom never sad nor sour:\n    In these consist our proper bliss;\n    Else Plato reasons much amiss.\n    But foolish mortals still pursue\n    False happiness in place of true;\n    Ambition serves us for a guide,\n    Or lust, or avarice, or pride;\n    While reason no assent can gain,\n    And revelation warns in vain.\n    Hence, through our lives in every stage,\n    From infancy itself to age,\n    A happiness we toil to find,\n    Which still avoids us like the wind;\n    Ev'n when we think the prize our own,\n    At once 'tis vanished, lost and gone.\n    You'll ask me why I thus rehearse\n    All Epictetus in my verse,\n    And if I fondly hope to please\n    With dry reflections such as these,\n    So trite, so hackneyed, and so stale?\n    I'll take the hint, and tell a tale.\n      One evening, as a simple swain\n    His flock attended on the plain,\n    The shining bow he chanced to spy,\n    Which warns us when a shower is nigh;\n    With brightest rays it seemed to glow,\n    Its distance eighty yards or so.\n    This bumpkin had, it seems, been told\n    The story of the cup of gold,\n    Which fame reports is to be found\n    Just where the rainbow meets the ground.\n    He therefore felt a sudden itch\n    To seize the goblet and be rich;\n    Hoping--yet hopes are oft but vain--\n    No more to toil through wind and rain,\n    But sit indulging by the fire,\n    Midst ease and plenty, like a squire.\n    He marked the very spot of land\n    On which the rainbow seemed to stand,\n    And, stepping forwards at his leisure,\n    Expected to have found the treasure.\n    But as he moved, the coloured ray\n    Still changed its place and slipt away,\n    As seeming his approach to shun.\n    From walking he began to run,\n    But all in vain; it still withdrew\n    As nimbly as he could pursue.\n    At last, through many a bog and lake,\n    Rough craggy road and thorny brake,\n    It led the easy fool, till night\n    Approached, then vanished in his sight,\n    And left him to compute his gains,\n    With nought but labour for his pains.'\n\nProfessor Rankine evidently took \u00c6sop's illustration of 'The Bow\nUnbent' to heart, when, relaxing his severer studies, he occupied\noccasional hours in composing 'Songs and Fables.' The three following\npieces are examples of his work as a fabulist, and of his skill in\ninterpreting the meaning of popular signs:\n\n'_The Magpie and Stump._--A magpie was in the habit of depositing\narticles which he pilfered in the hollow stump of a tree. \"I grieve\nless,\" the stump was heard to say, \"at the misfortune of losing my\nbranches and leaves, than at the disgrace of being made a receptacle\nfor stolen goods.\" Moral: _Infamy is harder to bear than adverse\nfortune_.'\n\n'_The Green Man._--A green man, wandering through the Highlands\nof Scotland, discovered, in a sequestered valley, a still, with\nwhich certain unprincipled individuals were engaged in the illicit\nmanufacture of aqua-vit\u00e6. Being, as we have stated, a green man, he\nwas easily persuaded by those unprincipled individuals to expend a\nconsiderable sum in the purchase of the intoxicating produce of their\nstill, and to drink so much of it that he speedily became insensible.\nOn awaking next morning, with an empty purse and an aching head, he\nthought, with sorrow and shame, what a green man he had been. Moral:\n_He who follows the advice of unprincipled individuals is a green man\nindeed_.'\n\n'_The Bull and Mouth._--A native of the Sister Isle having opened his\nmouth during a convivial entertainment, out flew a bull, whereupon some\nof the company manifested alarm. \"Calm your fears,\" said the sagacious\nhost; \"verbal bulls have no horns.\" Moral: _Harmless blunders are\nsubjects of amusement rather than of consternation_.'\n\nThe following curious 'Birth Story,' from the collection of Indian\nFables by Mr. P. V. Ramaswami Raju, is an ironical commentary on the\ndoctrine of transmigration, in which the followers of Buddha implicitly\nbelieve:\n\n'One day a king in the far East was seated in the hall of justice. A\nthief was brought before him; he inquired into his case, and said he\nshould receive one hundred lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails. Instantly\nhe recollected an old Eastern saying, \"What we do to others in this\nbirth, they will do to us in the next,\" and said to his minister, \"I\nhave a great mind to let this thief go quietly, for he is sure to give\nme these one hundred lashes in the next birth.\" \"Sire,\" replied the\nminister, \"I know the saying you refer to is perfectly true, but you\nmust understand you are simply returning to the thief in this birth\nwhat he gave you in the last.\" The king was perfectly pleased with this\nreply, says the story, and gave his minister a rich present.'\n\nThis selection of fables may be suitably concluded by two which,\nthough not original, we have not met with in print. The first is\nentitled _The Nightingale, the Cuckoo and the Ass_:[71]\n\n'The nightingale and the cuckoo disputed as to which of them was\nthe best singer, and they chose the ass to be the judge. First, the\nnightingale poured forth one of his most entrancing lays, followed\nby the cuckoo, with his two mellow notes. Being requested to deliver\njudgment, said the ass, \"Without doubt the trill of the nightingale\nis worth listening to; but for a good plain song give me that of the\ncuckoo!\"'\n\nThe moral here is obvious. Persons with a want of taste, or with a\ndepraved taste, see no difference between things excellent and mean.\nNay, they will often be found to prefer the mean, as being more in\nharmony with their own predilections.\n\nThe next is the shortest fable on record; its humour is as conspicuous\nas its brevity, and it hails from the County Palatine of Lancashire. It\nis named The _Flea and the Elephant_:\n\n'Passing into the ark together, said the flea to its big brother: \"Now,\nthen, mister! no thrutching!\"\n\n'Moral: Insignificance has often its full share of self-importance.'\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[66] 'The Tatler,' No. 115, vol iii., p. 7.\n\n[67] _Post_, p. 137.\n\n[68] Mr. Joseph Jacobs, in his erudite 'History of the \u00c6sopian Fable,'\nshows that this was a mistake on the part of Maria de France, and that\nthe author of the work from which her translation was made was not the\nKing, but 'Alfred the Englishman,' who flourished about A.D. 1170.\n\n[69] Vanbrugh, the architect, noted for the solidity of the structures\nhe designed, and on whom the epitaph, one of the best epigrams ever\npenned, was proposed:\n\n    'Lie heavy on him, Earth, for he\n    Laid many a heavy load on thee.'\n\n[70] London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey and Co.\n\n[71] Krilof's _Ass and Nightingale_ bears some resemblance to the\nfable here given; but, instead of the cuckoo, the cock is one of the\ncompetitors.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\n\n    'Out, out, brief candle.'\n\n                SHAKESPEARE: _Macbeth_.\n\n\nPictures illustrating fables are a feature that tends to enhance\ntheir attractiveness and value, and the ablest artists have employed\ntheir pencils in the work. It is sufficient to mention Bewick and his\npupils, whose illustrations are greatly prized. S. Howitt's etchings of\nanimals in illustration of the fabulists (1811). Northcote's original\nvolumes (1828-33) are illustrated with 560 charming engravings from\nthe author's designs. Robert Cruikshank illustrated the 'Fables for\nMankind,' by Charles Westmacott (1823). Blake, Stothard, Harvey,\nand Sir John Tenniel, the distinguished _Punch_ artist, have gained\napplause in the same field. The latter illustrated a small volume of\n\u00c6sop published by Murray in 1848. This is 'A New Version of the Old\nFables, chiefly from Original Sources,' by the Rev. Thomas James,\nM.A., and contains an introduction which is worthy of perusal by those\ninterested in the subject. The first edition of the work is a rarity\nsought for by collectors. Randolph Caldecott illustrated some of \u00c6sop's\nfables in his own inimitable style. Walter Crane[72] and Harrison\nWeir[73] have exercised their talents in the same direction, and Mrs.\nHugh Blackburn has supplied clever illustrations to Rankine's fables.\nThe pictures in the collection of fables made by G. Moir Bussey (1842)\nare from designs by J. J. Grandville, and are full of originality\nand humour. The same volume also contains an excellent 'Dissertation\non the History of Fable.' The spirited and masterly designs of Oudry\nin illustration of La Fontaine are justly prized and highly valued.\nGustave Dor\u00e9 also employed his facile pencil in illustrating the same\nauthor.\n\nThere are books bearing the title of 'Fables' the contents of which are\nnot fables in the restricted sense. Of these are Dryden's so-called\nfables, which are really metrical romances. A competent critic has\npronounced them to be the 'noblest specimens of versification to be\nfound in any modern language,' but we need not speak further of them\nin this connection. Again, there is Bernard Mandeville's eccentric\nwork, entitled 'The Fable of the Bees; or, Private Vices Public\nBenefits.' This is an apologue in rhyme, with a moral in addition, and\nfollowed by a voluminous prose disquisition on questions of morality,\npartaking of all the audacious paradoxical elements which characterized\nits ingenious author. Thomas Moore, the distinguished Irish poet, wrote\na series of eight political fables, which were originally published by\nhim under the pseudonym of 'Thomas Brown.' Neither these nor that of\nMandeville, however, are fables from our point of view. The same remark\napplies to Lowell's well-known 'Fable for Critics,' and Lord Lytton's\n'Fables in Song,' on which it is unnecessary to dwell.\n\nAnd so, having taken our survey of the fabulist and his work, we\nconclude, as we rightly may, that he is both philosopher and poet, but\nmore poet than philosopher, inasmuch as the imaginative faculty is\ngreatly at his command. Further, as saith Sir Philip Sidney,[74] 'The\nphilosopher teacheth, but he teacheth obscurely, so as the learned only\ncan understand him; that is to say, he teacheth them that are already\ntaught. But the poet is the food for the tenderest stomachs; the poet\nis, indeed, the right popular philosopher. Whereof \u00c6sop's tales give\ngood proof; whose pretty allegories, stealing under the formal tales of\nbeasts, make many, more beastly than beasts, begin to hear the sound of\nvirtue from these dumb speakers.'\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[72] 'The Baby's Own \u00c6sop;' the fables condensed in rhyme by W. J.\nLinton. Routledge, 1887.\n\n[73] '\u00c6sop's Fables,' translated from the Greek by the Rev. George\nFyler Townsend, M.A. Routledge.\n\n[74] 'A Defence of Poesie.'\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n \u00c6sop:\n   his era, 33;\n   birthplace, 33;\n   his masters when a slave, 33;\n   his mission to Delphi, 34;\n   his death, 35;\n   disparagement of his personal appearance, 36;\n   due to Planudes, 37;\n   his mate or wife, Rhodope, 38;\n   Lysippus' statue of \u00c6sop, 39;\n   stories related of, 42;\n   \u00c6sop and the figs, 44;\n   the pannier of bread, 45;\n   bought by Zanthus, 45;\n   Zanthus' foolish wager, 46;\n   Zanthus' wife restored, 46;\n   \u00c6sop and the mean fellow, 47;\n   at play, 48;\n   and the author, 48;\n   sayings of, 49;\n   at the Court of Cr\u0153sus, 49;\n   as a fabulist, 97\n\n _\u00c6sop and the Ass_, 115\n\n '\u00c6sop, G. Washington,' parody on \u00c6sop's fables, 127\n\n \u00c6sopian fable or apologue defined, 5;\n   opinions regarding the, 52;\n   characteristics of the, 55\n\n Ademar, 128\n\n Agathia's epigram on Lysippus' statue of \u00c6sop, 39\n\n Aitken, Dr., fables by, 127\n\n Aldus' edition of the fables, 59\n\n Alfonso, 128\n\n Aphthonius, definition of fable by, 2\n\n Apologue or fable, definition of the, 1\n\n Applicability of fables to every-day life, 58\n\n Application of fables, 13\n\n Arabian fables, 80\n\n Archilochus, a writer of fables, 54\n\n Aristotle on fables, 68\n\n _Arrogant Mule mortified, The_, 75\n\n Arwaker, Edmund, 'Truth in Fiction; or, Morality in Masquerade,'\n          fables by, 126\n\n _Ass's Shadow, The_, 79\n\n 'Assemblies of \u00c6sopian Fables,' 55\n\n Avienus, 55, 61\n\n\n Babrius, 55, 61, 65\n\n Bayle on Babrius, 66\n\n _Beau and the Butterfly, The_, 133\n\n _Bee and the Coquette, The_, 130\n\n _Bee and the Spider, The_, 111\n\n _Belly and the Members, The_, 54, 68;\n   the oldest known fable, 69\n\n Bentley, Dr., ridicules the account of \u00c6sop's deformity, 40;\n   on Babrius, 66\n\n Berington on 'The Arabian or Saracenic Learning,' 85\n\n Bias, 34\n\n Bitteux, 60\n\n Bonus Accursius, his collection of fables, 59\n\n 'Book of Kalilah and Dimnah,' The, 80\n\n Boothby, Sir Brooke, definition of fable by, 3\n\n _Boy and the Rainbow, The_, 137\n\n Brettinger, 60\n\n Brown, Walter, fables by, 127\n\n _Bull and the Gnat, The_, 57\n\n _Bull and Mouth, The_, 141\n\n Bussey, G. Moir, definition of fable by, 4;\n   collection of fables, 130, 144\n\n\n Caxton's collection of fables, 60\n\n Characteristics of fables, 7\n\n Chilo, 34\n\n Cleobulus, 34\n\n Colling, Mary Maria, fables by, 128\n\n _Confession_, from the 'Gesta Romanorum,' 93\n\n Coti\u00e6um in Phrygia, the supposed birthplace of \u00c6sop, 33\n\n Cowper, William, combats Rousseau's views on fables, 27;\n   his fables, 96, 127;\n   _The Nightingale and the Glow-worm_, 136\n\n Cr\u0153sus, King of Lydia, 34\n\n Croxall, Dr. Samuel, 16, 59, 60, 61\n\n\n Davies, M.A., Rev. James, translator of Babrius, 67\n\n Definition of fable, 1\n\n Delphi, \u00c6sop's mission to, 34;\n   character of the Delphians, 34;\n   their punishment for the murder of \u00c6sop, 36;\n   their expiation to a descendant of Idmon, 36\n\n Demarchus, \u00c6sop's first master, 33\n\n Demetrius Phalereus, \u00c6sop's fables collected by, 55, 61\n\n Diagoras, \u00c6sop's fables collected by, 55\n\n Dodsley, Robert, definition of fable by, 3;\n   on the morals and applications of fables, 17;\n   reason why fables esteemed in all ages, 21;\n   collection of fables, 60, 97, 108\n\n _Dog and the Crocodile, The_, 56\n\n Dryden's fables, 144\n\n\n _Eagle and the Beetle, The_, 35, 76\n\n Ebn Arabscah's collection of Arabian fables, 85\n\n _Elephant and the Fox, The_, 29\n\n Emblematical fables, 11\n\n English writers on fables, 62;\n   English fabulists, 129\n\n Epigram, Agathia's, on Lysippus' statue of \u00c6sop, 39\n\n Epigrammatical character of \u00c6sop's fables, 58\n\n Escurial Library, the, 85\n\n Eusebius, 35\n\n\n Fable, definition of, 1;\n   in history and myth, 68\n\n Fable, writers on:\n   Alsop, 62;\n   Bayle, 66;\n   Benfey, 61;\n   Bentley, 62;\n   Boissonade, 61;\n   Boyle, 62;\n   Crusius, 61;\n   Davies, 67;\n   Du Meril, 61;\n   Ellis, 62;\n   Fausboll, 61;\n   Gaston Paris, 61;\n   Gitlbauer, 61;\n   Hervieux, 61;\n   Jacobs, 62;\n   James, 62;\n   Jannelli, 61;\n   Landsberger, 62;\n   Lewis, 67;\n   Mall, 61;\n   Menas, 66;\n   Meziriac, 61;\n   Mueller, 61;\n   Neveletus, 66;\n   Oesterley, 61;\n   Perotti, 61;\n   Pithou, 61;\n   Robert, 61;\n   Rhys-Davids, 62;\n   Rutherford, 62;\n   Townsend, 62;\n   Tyrwhitt, 62;\n   Vavassor, 66;\n   Wase, 62\n\n Fables, characteristics of, 7;\n   morals of, 7;\n   rational, emblematical, and mixed, 11;\n   La Fontaine on, 13;\n   Montaigne on \u00c6sop's, 14;\n   Rousseau on, 25, 27;\n   Cowper on, 27;\n   Plato advises the use of, 26;\n   Aristotle on, 68;\n   in Holy Scripture, 54\n\n Fables, collections of \u00c6sopian:\n   Accursius, 59;\n   Aldus, 59;\n   Avienus, 55;\n   Babrius, 55;\n   Caxton, 60;\n   Croxall, 59;\n   Diagoras, 55;\n   Dodsley, 60;\n   Faerno, 59;\n   James, 60;\n   L'Estrange, 59;\n   Neveletus, 59;\n   Ogilby, 60;\n   Ph\u00e6drus, 55;\n   Phalereus, 55;\n   Planudes, 37;\n   Stephens, 59;\n   Willans, 60\n\n Fables quoted--\n   _\u00c6sop and the Ass_, 115\n   _The Arrogant Mule mortified_, 75\n   _The Ass's Shadow_, 79\n   _The Beau and Butterfly_, 133\n   _The Bee and the Coquette_, 130\n   _The Bee and the Spider_, 111\n   _The Belly and the Members_, 69\n   _The Boy and the Rainbow_, 137\n   _The Bull and Mouth_, 141\n   _The Bull and the Gnat_, 57\n   _Confession_, 93\n   _The Dog and the Crocodile_, 56\n   _The Eagle and the Beetle_, 35, 76\n   _The Elephant and the Fox_, 29\n   _The Farmer, Horseman and Pedestrian_, 131\n   _The Flea and the Elephant_, 142\n   _The Fox and the Crow_, 31\n   _The Fox and the Hedgehog_, 73\n   _The Fox and the Stork_, 99\n   _The Frogs and Jupiter_, 74\n   _The Geese_, 121\n   _The Greedy and Ambitious Cat_, 81\n   _The Green Man_, 140\n   _The Horse and the Stag_, 77\n   _Indian Birth Story_, 141\n   _The Land of the Halt_, 132\n   _The Leaves and the Roots_, 120\n   _The Magpie and Stump_, 140\n   _The Man and his Goose_, 10\n   _The Man and the Lion_, 9\n   _The Mastiff and his Puppy_, 126\n   _Mercury and the Sculptor_, 57\n   _The Miser and Plutus_, 106\n   _The Miser and the Magpie_, 109\n   _The Nightingale, the Cuckoo, and the Ass_, 142\n   _The Nightingale and the Hawk_, 54, 58\n   _The Nightingale and the Glow-worm_, 135, 136\n   _The Old Woodcutter and Death_, 58\n   _Of Perfect Life_, 90\n   _The Piper turned Fisherman_, 76\n   _The Shepherd and the Nightingale_, 116\n   _The Snake and the Hedgehog_, 56\n   _Solomon's Ghost_, 116\n   _The Toad and the Ephemeron_, 110\n   _The Trees in Search of a King_, 71\n   _The Trooper and his Armour_, 113\n   _The Two Thrushes_, 118\n   _The Viper and the File_, 102\n   _The Wolf and the Shepherds_, 55\n   _The Wolves and the Sheep_, 78\n\n Fables, writers of:\n   Addison, 129;\n   Ademar, 128;\n   Aitken, 127;\n   Alfonso, 128;\n   Armoult, 129;\n   Arwaker, 126;\n   Avian, 128;\n   Babrius, 65;\n   Bertola, 129;\n   Boisard, 129;\n   Bondi, 129;\n   Brown, 127;\n   Chemnitzer, 129;\n   Clasio, 129;\n   Colling, 128;\n   Coyne, 130;\n   Crudeli, 129;\n   Dmitriev, 129;\n   Dodsley, 108;\n   Dryden, 144;\n   Faerno, 59;\n   F\u00e9nelon, 128;\n   Florian, 129;\n   Maria de France, 127;\n   Gaspey, 127;\n   Gay, 103;\n   Gellert, 129;\n   Gentleman, 127;\n   Ginguene, 129;\n   Glinka, 129;\n   Godolphin, 128;\n   Goldsmith, 129;\n   Goncharov, 129;\n   Grillo, 129;\n   Hagedorn, 129;\n   Hall-Stevenson, 126;\n   Henryson, 130;\n   Jauffret, 129;\n   Krilof, 120;\n   La Fontaine, 97;\n   Lessing, 115;\n   Le Grand, 129;\n   Lichtner, 129;\n   Lomonosov, 129;\n   Moore, 126;\n   Nicolai, 129;\n   Nivernois, 128;\n   Northcote, 112;\n   Passeroni, 129;\n   Perego, 129;\n   Percival, 130;\n   Pfeffel, 129;\n   Ph\u00e6drus, 63;\n   Pignotti, 129;\n   Pilpay, 80;\n   Planudes, 37;\n   Poggio, 128;\n   Polidori, 129;\n   Prior, 129;\n   Prosser, 128;\n   Ramsay, 126;\n   Rankine, 130;\n   Roberti, 129;\n   Romulus, 128;\n   Rossi, 129;\n   Rowe, 127;\n   Rufus, 128;\n   Samaniego, 129;\n   Staite, 127;\n   Steele, 126;\n   Sumarakov, 129;\n   Trimmer, 128;\n   Vanbrugh, 129;\n   Westmacott, 127;\n   Wilkie, 127;\n   Wilson, 127;\n   Winter, 130;\n   Yriarte, 117\n\n Fabulists as censors, 19\n\n Faerno's, Gabriele, one hundred fables, 59\n\n _Farmer, Horseman, and Pedestrian, The_, 131\n\n Feast of the Sages, The, 75\n\n F\u00e9nelon, the Abb\u00e9, 128\n\n Figs, \u00c6sop and the stolen, 44\n\n _Flea and the Elephant, The_, 142\n\n Florian, 129;\n   _The Bee and the Coquette_, 130\n\n _Fox and the Crow, The_, 31\n\n _Fox and the Hedgehog, The_, 73\n\n _Fox and the Stork, The_, 99\n\n France, Maria de, 127\n\n French fabulists, 128\n\n French writers on fable, 61\n\n _Frogs and Jupiter, The_, 74\n\n Furia, Francisco de, on Babrius, 66\n\n\n Gaspey's fables, 127\n\n G\u0101thas, or moral verses, 14\n\n Gay, John, 17;\n   his fables, 96;\n   sketch of, 103;\n   lines of Gay which have become widely popular, 104;\n   Pope's epitaph on, 105\n\n _Geese, The_, 121\n\n Gellert, 129;\n   _The Land of the Halt_, 132\n\n Gentleman's, Francis, royal fables, 127;\n   _The Beau and Butterfly_, 133\n\n German fabulists, 129;\n   writers on fable, 61\n\n 'Gesta Romanorum,' 89;\n   a rich storehouse for the poets, 95\n\n Godolphin, Mary, her fables, 128\n\n Goldsmith on L'Estrange as a writer, 61\n\n Grecian heroes and gods, 1\n\n _Greedy and Ambitious Cat, The_, 81\n\n _Green Man, The_, 140\n\n\n Hall-Stevenson's, John, 'Fables for Grown Gentlemen,' 126\n\n Harrison's, J. Henry, translation of Krilof's fables, 119;\n   _The Man with Three Wives_, 123\n\n Heidelberg Library, collection of fables in the, 59\n\n Herodotus on the building of the Lesser Pyramid, 38\n\n Hesiod and Homer, the mythical stories of, 26;\n   _The Nightingale and the Hawk_, 54, 58\n\n Hindoo fables, 80\n\n _Horse and the Stag, The_, 77\n\n Humour of fables, 22, 58\n\n Hyampia, the rock whence \u00c6sop was precipitated, 35\n\n\n Idmon, or Jadmon, \u00c6sop's third master, 34;\n   his grandson claims reparation for \u00c6sop's death, 36\n\n Indian birth story, 141\n\n Indian fables, 130\n\n Ineradicable impression produced by certain fables, 32\n\n Iriarte, or Yriarte, Don Tomas de, Spanish fabulist, 117\n\n Italian fabulists, 129;\n   writers on fable, 61\n\n\n Jacobs, Joseph, definition of fable by, 4;\n   on the added morals to fables, 13;\n   'History of the \u00c6sopic Fable,' 62;\n   Maria de France, 128\n\n James's, Rev. Thomas, fables of \u00c6sop, 9, 60, 143\n\n Jameson, Mrs., relates a tradition of our Lord, 87\n\n J\u0101takas, 14, 53, 87\n\n Jewish writers on fables, 61\n\n Johnson, Dr., definition of fable by, 3\n\n\n Krilof, or Krilov, Ivan Andreivitch, Russian fabulist, 19, 96, 97;\n   characteristics of his fables, 119;\n   sketch of his life, 120;\n   Ralston's translation, 119;\n   Harrison's translation, 119;\n   _The Leaves and the Roots_, 120;\n   _The Geese_, 121;\n   _The Man with Three Wives_, 123\n\n\n Lady fabulists, 127\n\n La Fontaine, Jean de, on fables, 13, 17;\n   the morals of his fables, 27;\n   his fable of _The Old Woodcutter and Death_, 58;\n   his fables, 96, 144;\n   sketch of, 97;\n   Matthews' translation, 99\n\n La Motte, 17, 60\n\n _Land of the Halt, The_, 132\n\n _Leaves and the Roots, The_, 120\n\n Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim:\n   his fables, 96, 97;\n   sketch of, 115;\n   his fables of _\u00c6sop and the Ass_, 115;\n   _The Shepherd and the Nightingale_, 116;\n   _Solomon's Ghost_, 116\n\n Lessons taught by fables, 25\n\n L'Estrange, Sir Roger, 16, 59, 60;\n   as a writer, 61;\n   his version of \u00c6sop, 125\n\n Lewis, Sir George Cornewall, edited first English edition of Babrius\n          in the original Greek text, 67\n\n Locman, the Oriental fabulist, 37, 80, 85, 86\n\n Lowell's 'Fable for Critics,' 145\n\n Lysippus' statue of \u00c6sop, 39\n\n Lytton's, Lord, 'Fables in Song,' 145\n\n\n _Magpie and Stump, The_, 140\n\n _Man and his Goose, The_, 10\n\n _Man and the Lion, The_, 9\n\n Mandeville's 'Fable of the Bees,' 144\n\n _Mastiff and his Puppy, The_, 126\n\n Men loath to apply the moral of a fable to their own case, 22\n\n Menas, M. Minoides, discovers a copy of Babrius, 66\n\n Menenius recites the fable of _The Belly and the Members_, 69\n\n _Mercury and the Sculptor_, 57\n\n Mercury bestows the invention of the apologue on \u00c6sop, 43\n\n _Miser and the Magpie, The_, 109\n\n _Miser and Plutus, The_, 106\n\n Mixed fables, 11\n\n Modern fabulists, 96, 108, 115, 125\n\n Montaigne on \u00c6sop's fables, 14\n\n Moore's, Edward, 'Fables for the Fair Sex,' 126;\n   _The Nightingale and the Glow-worm_, 135\n\n Moore's, Thomas, 'Political Fables,' 145\n\n Moral and application of fables, 13;\n   whether the moral should be placed at the beginning or end of a\n          fable, 16\n\n\n Neveletus' collection of fables, 59;\n   on Babrius, 66\n\n _Nightingale and the Glow-worm, The_, 135, 136\n\n _Nightingale and the Hawk, The_, 54, 58\n\n _Nightingale, Cuckoo, and Ass, The_, 142\n\n Nivernois, 128;\n   _The Farmer, Horseman, and Pedestrian_, 131\n\n Northcote, R.A., James:\n   his fables of _The Elephant and the Fox_, 29;\n   _The Trooper and his Armour_, 113;\n   his fables, 96, 97, 112;\n   sketch of his life, 112\n\n\n _Of Perfect Life_, from 'The Gesta Romanorum,' 90\n\n _Old Woodcutter and Death, The_, 58\n\n\n Parables, 5, 6;\n   Nathan and the ewe lamb, 6;\n   of the Gospels, 6\n\n Parodies on \u00c6sop's fables, 127\n\n Pater, Walter, definition of fable by, 2\n\n Pathos in fables, 58\n\n _Perfect Life, Of_, from 'The Gesta Romanorum,' 90\n\n Periander, 34\n\n Persian fables, 80\n\n Ph\u00e6drus, 3, 17, 55;\n   his view of the origin and purpose of fables, 20, 26;\n   on \u00c6sop's statue, 39;\n   sketch of his life, 63;\n   prologue to his third book, 64\n\n Philostratus on a picture of \u00c6sop and the geniuses of fable, 40;\n   mythical account of the youthful \u00c6sop, 43\n\n Pictures illustrating fables, 143\n\n Pilpay's fables, 80\n\n _Piper turned Fisherman, The_, 76\n\n Pittacus, 34\n\n Planudes confounds Locman with \u00c6sop, 37;\n   his stories of \u00c6sop, 42\n\n Plato advises the use of fables, 26;\n   citation from the 'Ph\u00e6do' of, 59\n\n Plutarch on \u00c6sop at the Court of Cr\u0153sus, 49;\n   on Hesiod's fable of the nightingale, 54\n\n Poggio, 128\n\n Pope's epitaph on Gay, 105\n\n Prosser's, Mrs., fables, 128\n\n\n Quintilian recommends the learning of fables, 26\n\n\n Ralston's, W. R. S., translation of Krilof's fables, 119;\n   _The Geese_, 121\n\n Ramsay's, Allan, fables, 126\n\n Rankine's, Professor W. J. Macquorn, fables on well-known signboards, 130;\n   _The Magpie and Stump_, 140;\n   _The Green Man_, 140;\n   _The Bull and Mouth_, 141\n\n Rational fables, 11\n\n Reflection, the, appended to fables, 15\n\n Remark, the, appended to fables, 15\n\n Rhodope, the reputed wife of \u00c6sop, 38;\n   said to have built the Lesser Pyramid, 38\n\n Richer, 60\n\n Romulus, 128\n\n Rousseau, Jean Jacques, on fables, 25, 27\n\n Rowe, Rev. Henry: his fables, 127\n\n Rufus, 128\n\n Russian fabulists, 129\n\n\n Scandinavian heroes and gods, 1\n\n Seven sages of Greece, the, 34\n\n Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus,' fable of _The Belly and the Members_ from, 69\n\n _Shepherd and the Nightingale, The_, 116\n\n Sidney, Sir Philip, on \u00c6sop's fables, 145\n\n Smart's, Christopher, translation of Ph\u00e6drus, 64\n\n _Snake and the Hedgehog, The_, 56\n\n Socrates and \u00c6sop's fables, 59\n\n _Solomon's Ghost_, 116\n\n Solon, 34;\n   at the Court of Cr\u0153sus, 49\n\n Spanish fabulists, 129\n\n Staite's, W. E., fables, 127\n\n Steele's definition of fable, 4;\n   fable of _The Mastiff and his Puppy_, 126\n\n Stephens', Robert, edition of the fables, 59\n\n Stories related of \u00c6sop, 43\n\n Successful villain, the, in the fable, 28\n\n Suidas quoted, 59\n\n Swift quoted, 23\n\n\n 'Tatler,' the, quoted, 4\n\n Temple, Sir William, on \u00c6sop, 60\n\n Thales, 34\n\n _Toad and the Ephemeron, The_, 110\n\n _Trees in Search of a King, The_, the oldest fable in Holy Scripture, 71\n\n Trimmer's, Mrs., fables of \u00c6sop, 128\n\n _Trooper and his Armour, The_, 113\n\n _Two Thrushes, The_, 118\n\n Tyrwhitt on Babrius, 66\n\n\n Universality of the effect of fables, 28\n\n\n Vanbrugh, Sir John, 129\n\n Vavassor on Babrius, 66\n\n _Viper and the File, The_, 102\n\n\n Westmacott's, Charles, 'Fables for Mankind,' 127, 143\n\n Wilkie, D.D., William:\n   his fables, 127;\n   _The Boy and the Rainbow_, 127, 137\n\n Willans', Leonard, collection of fables, 60\n\n Wilson, Sheridan, 'The Bath Fables,' 127\n\n _Wolf and the Lamb, The_, 58\n\n _Wolf and the Shepherds, The_, 55\n\n _Wolves and the Sheep, The_, 78\n\n\n Xanthus, or Zanthus, \u00c6sop's second master, 33;\n   his foolish wager, 46;\n   his wife restored, 46\n\n\n Yriarte, or Iriarte, Don Tomas de, Spanish fabulist, 117;\n   characteristics of his fables, 117;\n   _The Two Thrushes_, 118\n\n\n[Device]\n\n\n_Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London, E.C._\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\n    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.\n    Archaic and variant spellings have been retained.","title":"Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":33151}