Fables

“ The Moral of the Four Fables Above.
We are apt to Ascribe our Successes in This World, and to Impute our Misfortunes, to Wrong Causes. We Assume the One to our Selves, and Charge the Other upon Providence. ”

“ REFLEXION.
'Tis the Intent of These Two Fables, to shew, that no People are so Miserable, but that at some Time or Other, in some Thing or Other, they have Reason to Account themselves Happy. And if they would but duly consider, how it is with many of their Neighbours, they would find it their Duty to be Thankful, that it is no Worse with Themselves. It is some Relief to the Miserable to shew them that there are Others yet more Miserable, and there is not any thing so Timerous, but something else is affraid of It. ”

“ The significant thing to keep in mind is that, for twentieth century readers, the best Fables are not merely the best ones ever written, but the best ones re-written. In other words, the Fable was for centuries an old story in a rough state, and the writers who have made it most interesting are the writers who told it over again in a manner that makes it Art. A Greek named Babrius, of whom almost nothing is known, is remembered because he collected and versified some of the so-called Fables of Aesop. ”

“ There are several sorts of Fables, which one may treat after very different ways. The Poet forms his from that which is most excellent in each of these sorts.
There are reckon'd three sorts of Fables. The first fall under the Names of Men and Gods, and are call'd Rational ”

“ This Rhapsody of Fables is a Book Universally Read, and Taught in All our Schools; but almost at such a rate as we Teach Pyes and Parrots, that Pronounce the Words without so much as Guessing at the Meaning of them: Or to take it Another way, the Boys Break their Teeth upon the Shells, without ever coming near the Kernel. They Learn the Fables by Lessons, and the Moral is the least part of our Care in a Child s Institution: so that take Both together, and the One is stark Nonsense, without the Application of the Other ”

“ Some of the Romances of Renard are insipid; others possess a satiric and parodying spirit that is extremely diverting.
THE FABLES.—Contemporaneously the Fables amused our ancestors. They were anecdotes, tales in verse for the most part dealing with adventures of citizens, analogous to the tales of La Fontaine. The majority were jeering, bantering, and satirical; some few were affecting and refined. They were certainly the most living and characteristic portion of old French literature. ”

“ On this ground he would rule out all the cruel step-mother stories, the unnatural father stories, and so on; though, probably, most of us would make an exception in favour of Cinderella, and its charming German rendering Aschenbrödel.
Fables, according to our author, should form the basis of moral instruction at the second stage; probably when children emerge from the nursery. We have all grown up on “Æsop’s Fables,” and “The Dog in the Manger,” “King Log,” “The Frog and the Stork,” have passed into the current coinage of our thought. ”

“ These Fables are a Reproof to the Ungrateful Cruelty of those that will neither Forgive One Slip, nor Reward a Thousand Services, but take more Notice of a Particular Unlucky Accident, than of a General Laudable Practice. ”

“ The matter which Æsop, the inventor of Fables, has provided, I have polished in Iambic verse. The advantages of this little work are twofold—that it excites laughter, and by counsel guides the life of man. But if any one shall think fit to cavil, because not only wild beasts, but even trees speak, let him remember that we are disporting in fables.
Smart Fable I.
THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.
Driven by thirst, a Wolf and a Lamb had come to the same stream; the Wolf stood above, and the Lamb at a distance below. Then, the spoiler, prompted by a ravenous maw, alleged a pretext for a quarrel. ”

“ Smart Fable II.
THE WEASEL AND THE MICE.
This way of writing seems to you facetious; and no doubt, while we have nothing of more importance, we do sport with the pen. But examine these Fables with attention, and what useful lessons will you find concealed under them! Things are not always what they seem; first appearances deceive many: few minds understand what skill has hidden in an inmost corner. That I may not appear to have said this without reason, I will add a Fable about the Weasel and the Mice. ”

“ It is otherwise with La Fontaine. His Fables were eagerly read by the great men and women of his time, and are still read and enjoyed all the world over.
The causes of this lasting popularity are not obscure. From the earliest period--whether in India, Greece, Arabia or Rome--the Fable has pleased and instructed mankind. It told important truths, easily perceived, in an entertaining way; and often said more in a few words than could be said through any other kind of writing. Now, no one person is the author of the Fables we know so well. Aesop did not write the Fables bearing his name. ”

“ The humbler sisters of the Myths, the Fables based on the natural propensities of animals, are not obscured in their real character so easily as the former, and have, on that account, more generally retained their simple usefulness as moral teachers ”

“ The Moral of the two Fables above.
Let every man take a True Measure of Himself, what he is Able to do, and what Not; before be comes to any Peremptory Resolution how to Proceed. He is a Madman, that to Avoid a Present, and a Less Evil, runs Blindfolded into a Greater; and for the Gratifying of a Froward Humour, makes himself a Slave All the days of his Life.
REFLEXION.
These Fables lay Open to us the Folly of Thofe People that make themselves Slaves to their Revenge ”

“ Fortune and the Fabulist
A Writer of Fables was passing through a lonely forest when he met a Fortune. Greatly alarmed, he tried to climb a tree, but the Fortune pulled him down and bestowed itself upon him with cruel persistence.
“Why did you try to run away?” said the Fortune, when his struggles had ceased and his screams were stilled. “Why do you glare at me so inhospitably?”
“I don’t know what you are,” replied the Writer of Fables, deeply disturbed.
“I am wealth; I am respectability,” the Fortune explained; “I am elegant houses, a yacht, and a clean shirt every day. ”

“ And for the Other of Ancient Date, the Morals are so Insipid and Flat, and the Style and Diction of the Fables, so Course and Uncouth, that they are rather Dangerous, than Profitable, as to the purpose they we're Principally Intended for; and likely to do Forty times more Mischief by the One then Good by the Other. An Emblem without a Key to't, is no more then a Tale of a Tub; and that Tale sillily told too, is but One Folly Grafted upon Another. Children are to be Taught, in the first Place, what they Ought to do. ”

“ Here's a Recommendation of Clemency and Wisdom, Both in One; for the Lion, in sparing the Life of the Mouse, sav'd his Own; and has left us in this Fable, an Instance of a Grateful Beast, that will stand upon Record to the Confusion of many an Ungrateful Man, that is to say, against those that in their Prosperity forget the Friends, that to their Loss and Hazard, flood by and succour'd them in their Adversity. This is a Sin of so odious and Dangerous an Example, that it puts even Piety, and Gratitude it self out of Countenance. ”

“ Done into prose, the Fables are no longer La Fontaine, but take their place with the many respectable, dull translations which English readers try to admire because they are classics--though the soul that made them such has been separated from the dead body. ”

“ The Holiest things are often mixt with Fables. The strange Fancies, and Falshoods of Duret, touching the Spirits of the Planets ; and touching the Astrologicall Cabale of the Jewes. The Fooleries of Carlo Fabri, in his assigning of the Angels, proper to the Seven Electors of the Empire. ”

“ How far the Author of the following Fables, written for the amusement of an exalted Personage, may have succeeded, in descriptive fancy, as a poet: it is hoped, that, the moral and refined admonitions which may be found to breathe, from the fragrant bosom of a silver-robed Lily, or a blooming Jonquil, will throw a veil over any poetical inaccuracies; for who can paint like Nature? ”

“ The true Fable, if it rise to its high requirements, ever aims at one great end and purpose—the representation of human motive, and the improvement of human conduct, and yet it so conceals its design under the disguise of fictitious characters, by clothing with speech the animals of the field, the birds of the air, the trees of the wood, or the beasts of the forest, that the reader shall receive advice without perceiving the presence of the adviser. ”

“ La Fontaine composed the most entertaining Fables ever written in any language, and made them a model of literary perfection; yet our translators and compilers have somehow neglected him. His Fables are lyric poetry of a high order, and this alone has doubtless been a barrier to a better acquaintance with his work when transferred to our own tongue. ”

“ After the nursery rhymes, the next volumes for the boy's book shelf will be collections of fables and fairy tales. The animal fable is easiest to start with, and children like it best as a rule. Talking beasts kindle their imagination and stimulate their awakening powers. Fables are direct, simple, wise, and have a universal appeal. In the delightful first chapter of "The Newcomes," Thackeray tells us that long ages before Æsop, asses under lions' manes roared in Hebrew, sly foxes flattered in Etruscan, and wolves in sheep's clothing gnashed their teeth in Sanscrit. ”

“ No Fable can be Pleasant, Profitable or Instrutive in Emblem, that is not drawn to the very Life of Nature; and we have a Horror for the Monstrous Productions of the Brain, as well as for those of the Body. ”

“ T is difficult to say what are and what are not the Fables of Æsop. Almost all the fables that have appeared in the Western world have been sheltered at one time or another under the shadow of that name. I could at any rate enumerate at least seven hundred which have appeared in English in various books entitled Æsop's Fables. L'Estrange's collection alone contains over five hundred. In the struggle for existence among all these a certain number stand out as being the most effective and the most familiar. ”

“ He makes the World his Enemies, and the Mischiefe that he does to Others, returns in a Judgment upon his Own Head. There's No Trusting of a Crafty Designing Knave. I do not speak of the Trust of Privacy and Confidence only; but a Wise Man would not so much as Venture himself in such Company, nor let him come within distance of so much as knowing how to put a Trick upon him. This Fable shews us the Danger of such Conversation. And it shews us likewise the Just Fate that Attends the Treachery, even of One Traytor to Another: The Wolfe had a Design upon the Fox ”

“ By ERNEST THOMPSON SETON The fable and the proverb are much alike in that both are highly condensed, and both are told to instruct. The short, direct, applied narratives known as “Fables” are among the oldest ancestors of the short story. Even in the most ancient times there were fables, those of Æsop having been told perhaps as early as the sixth century, B.C. Many familiar fables have animals for their characters, their known characteristics needing no comment. Thus the fox and the wolf appear frequently, their mere names suggesting traits of character. ”

“ Fables are short compositions designed to teach moral truths, or to impress moral truisms, by representing beasts, birds, reptiles, insects, trees, flowers, or other objects, as endowed with the faculties of men, retaining their own forms but acting and talking as men, exemplifying the virtues and vices of men in characteristic deeds, followed by their proper consequences. ”

“ Fables, which never claim so high a place among the elements of furthering the eliminating process of our species, remain always welcome to most classes of readers at certain periods of their intellectual development. ”

“ The Fables, with hardly less animation and narrative art than the Contes, are free from disadvantages (according to modern notions) of subject, and exhibit the versatility and fecundity of the author’s talent perhaps even more fully. La Fontaine had many predecessors in the fable and especially in the beast fable. ”

“ As Fables took their birth in the very infancy of learning, they never flourished more than when learning was at its greatest height. To justify this assertion, I shall put my reader in mind of Horace, the greatest wit and critic in the Augustan age; and of Boileau, the most correct poet among the moderns; not to mention La Fontaine, who, by this way of writing, is come more into vogue than any other author of our times." After this, he proceeds to give some account of that kind of Fable in which the passions, and other imaginary beings, are actors ”

“ No other than he who invented this Fable, could explain how many useful lessons it affords. In the first place, it teaches that those whom you yourself have brought up, may often be found the most hostile to you: then again, it shows that crimes are punished not through the wrath of the Gods, but at the time appointed by the Fates: lastly, it warns the good to use nothing in common with the wicked. ”

“ They have inserted a hundred new fables, and they have the satisfaction of knowing that this edition, on which they have spared no pains nor cost, will afford a larger choice, and greater variety, to the numerous and increasing circle of the admirers of Æsopian Fables. Whatever be the result of their labours, they will be content to have contributed towards promoting a wider acquaintance with fables, the wisdom, excellency, and wonderful suitableness of which to every condition of humanity has been attested and confirmed by the experience of so many generations ”