THE WILLIAM R. PERKINS LIBRARY OF DUKE UNIVERSITY Rare Books Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2011 witii funding from Duke University Libraries http://www.arcliive.org/details/aesopsfableswitliOOaeso ; , . sot's TJ^BLTuS Wi^ iiftructivc. Morals am/ Heileclions, iVMracTed Irom all PaKTT C 0:N SIDEKATIOKS ADAPTE,D To j\ll CAPACITIE S Ami de£gji'«l to in'omote- RE MGION MOIiAl /[ T^Y AND ITiSflYEIlSAT. E>INEVOiiirNCE |r(Hitaiiiin^'Rv([)Hnndrp«l and FortTE\BLES. with a Crx j^ng'rav'd cm Copyrr to earli Ikblr . Andiiie JJFK c£.f'SOP tirrlixpa . BY M^ inClIAKD SOS f"-« X t^ ""^^ a«*fflf^ I¥ira£d for T.nHAcTi.an^ R Sperwe. w ;^.-''j(«. PREFACE w,HEN there are fo many editions of JECop's Fables, it will be expedled that fome reafons Ihoiild be given for the appearance of a new ; and we fhall be as brief on this head as the nature of the thing will admit. Of all the Englifh editions, we 'hall confider only two as Vv^orthy of notice; to wit. That of the celebrated Sir Roger L'Edrangc, and that which appears under the Name of S. Croxall, fubfcribed ta the dedication. And when we have given an account of what each fays for his own performance, it will be our turn to offer fome things to the reader with regard to our prefent un- dertaking. " When firrt: I put pen to paper- upon this de- " fign," fays Sir Roger, " I had in my eye only *' the common fchool book, as it fcands in the " Cambridge and Oxford editions of it, under the *' title of y^Jopi Phrygis Fabidis \ una cum n'^nnuUis *' ijariorUiu Au5ioruin Fahidls adjeSlis : Propound- ^' ing to myfelf at that time to follow the very *' courfe and feries of that collection j and in one " word to try what might be done by making the *' beft of the whole, and adapting proper and ufe- " ful doflrines to the feveral parts of it, toward tlie *' turning of an excellent Latin manual of morals " and good counfels into a tolerable Englilli one. " But UDon iumblino; inatters and thoudits toge- *' ther, and laying one thing by another, the very " flate and condition of the cafe before me, toge- " ther with the nature and tne reaibn of the thin^ " gave me to underftand, that this way of pror " ceeding would never anfwer my end : infomuch ^' that, upon this confideration, I confulted other A " verlions 11 PREFACE. *' verfions of the fame Fables, and made my l3efl " of the clioice. Some that were twice or thrice " over, and only the felf-fame thing in other " words ; thefe i ftruck out, and made one fpeci- '' men ferve for the rell. l^o fay nothing of here " and there a trivialy or a loofe conceit in the med- " ley, more than this^ that, fuch as they are, I " w^as under fome fort of obligation to take them " in for company ; and, in (hort, good^ had^ and " mdifferent^ one with another, to the number, ia « the total, of 383 fables. To thefe I have like- " wife fubjoined a confiderable addition of other " fele6i: apologues^ out of the mod celebrated au- '' thors that are extant upon that fubject, towards *' finifhing of the work.'' And a little farther, " This rhapfody cf fables,'* fays he, " is a book univerfally read, and taught *' in all our fchools ; but almoft at fuch a rate as *' we teach f.ycs and parrots,^ that pronounce the " w^ords without fo much as guefling at the mean- " ing of them : or, to take it another way, the boys " break their teeth upon the fhells, without ever *' coming near the kernel. They learn fables by " leflbns, and the m.oral is the leall part of our care " in a child's inftitution : So that take them both " together, and the one is ftark nonfenfe, without " the application of the other; befide that, the *' doctrine itfelf, as we have it, even at the beft, " falls infinitely iliort of the vigour and fpirit of the " fable. To fupply this defeSt now, we have had " feveral Englifh paraphrafes and elTays upon i^fop, *' and divers of his followers, both in profe and *' verfe. The latter have perchance ventured a '' little too far from the precife fcope of the author, " upon the privilege of a poetical licence : Arid for *' the other of antient date, the morals are fo infi- -" pid and fiat, and the ft)'le and di(Si:ion of the fa- *' bles fo coarfe and uncouth, that they are rather " dano-erous PREFACE. in ^ dangerous than profitable, as to the purpofe they ** were principally intended for ; and likely to do " forty times more mifchief by the one than good " by the other. An emblem without a key to it, " is no more than a tale of a tub j and that tale, " fillily told too, is but one folly grafted upon " another. Chldren are to be tau2;ht, in the lirft " place, what they ought to do : 2djy, The man- " ner of doing it: And, in the third place, they '* are to be inured, by the force of inflruJtion and " gojd example, to the love and pra<£tice of doing " their duty ; whereas, on the contrary, one flep " out of the way, in the inftitution, is enough to *' poifon the peace and the reputation of a who'e " life. —Whether I have in this attempt," adds Sir Roger, " contributed, or not, to the improve- " mcnt of thefe fables, either in the wording or " the meaning of them, the book muft ftand or " fall to itfclf : But this I ihall adventure to pro- " nounce upon the whole matter, that the text is " Englifn, and the morals in fome fort accommo- " dated to the allegory ; which could hardly be " faid of all the iranllations or refle*Siions before- " mentioned, which have ferved, in truth (or at " Jeaft fome of them) rather to teach us what we " (hould not do, than what wz Jhould, So that in " the publifhing of thefe papers, 1 have done my " beft to obviate a common inconvenience, or, to " fpeak plainly, the mortal error of pretending to " erect a building upon a falfe foundation ; leaving " the whole world to take the fame freedom with " me that 1 have done with others." Thus far Sir Roger L'Efh-ange. Now we come to what the other gentleman has to fay for him- felf, or rather, as he hath managed the matter, what he has to fay agahiji Sir Roger, the depre- ciating of whofe v;ork, feems to be the corner-ftone of his own building. A 2. "Nothing ?V PREFACE. " Nothing of this nature/' fays he, " has been " done fince L'Eftrange's time worth mentioning; " and we had nothing before, but what (as he ob- *' ferves, Preface to part i.) was fo inftpid andflat. " i?i the moral^ andjo coaffe and uncouth hi thejlyle " and diSi'ion^ that they were rather danger ous than " prof.table^ as to the purpofe for which thry were " intended; and likely to do forty times more harfn " than good. I fhall therefore only obferve to " my reader the infufficiency of L'ib'ange's own " performance, as to the purpofe for which he " profeffes to have principally intended it ; with " fome other circumdances wluch will help to ex- " cufe, if not jut^ify, what I have enterprifed upon " tlie fame fubject. " Now the purpofe for which he principally in- ^' tended his book, as in his preface he Ipends a " great many words to inform us, was for the ufe *' and inftruction of children, who being,. as it were, " a mere rafa tabula^ or blank paper, are ready " indifferently for any opinions^ good or had^ taking '' all upon credit and that it is in the power of the " fi^ft <^o^^^ to. write faint or devil upon thein^ which " he pleafes. This being truly and certainly the " cafe, what devils, nay, what poor devils, would " L'Eflrange make of thofe children, who fhould *' be fo unfortunate as to read his book, and im- " bibe his pernicious principles ! principks coined, " and fuited to promote the growth, and ferve the " ends of popery and arbitrary power. Tho' we " had never been told he was a penfioner to a po- " pi(h prince, and that he himfelf * profefTed the " fame • Is ths gcndeman fure of what he thus pofitlvely afleits ? What (hall we think of lb roun'.i an aCertor, if he be wrong ? Sir Kcg.r hirnfeif dsny'd that he was a papitt, in a pamphlet cxprefsiy written to clear himfelf from liich an afperfioii thrown upon him by a like charitable writer, which he in- titied, LEJirange no Papif:, Not any of hi$ wxjrks, high- PREFACE. V ^ fame unaccountable religion, yet his reflecSlions ** upon J£{op would diicovcr it to us : In every " political touch he (hews himfelf to be the tool " and hireling of the popifh faction ; fince even a. " flave, without fome mercenary view, would not " bring arguments to juflify flavery, nor endeavour " to eftablilh arbitrary power upon the bafis of *' right reafon. What fort of children therefore " are the bl^j^k paper^ upon which fuch morality " as this ought to be written ? Not the children " of Britain, I hope ; for they are born with free " blood in their veins, and fuck in liberty with " their very milk. 7'his they Ihould be taught to " love and cheriih above all things, and, upon oc- " cafion, to defend and vindicate it ; as it is the " glory of their country, the greateft bleiTing of *' their lives, and the peculiar happy privilege, in " which they excel all the world befides.