Fables - Aesop (best time to read books .TXT) 📗

Thief and the Innkeeper The Pack-Ass and the Wild Ass The Ass and His Masters The Pack-Ass, the Wild Ass, and the Lion The Ant The Frogs and the Well The Crab and the Fox The Fox and the Grasshopper The Farmer, His Boy, and the Rooks The Ass and the Dog The Ass Carrying the Image The Athenian and the Theban The Goatherd and the Goat The Sheep and the Dog The Shepherd and the Wolf The Lion, Jupiter, and the Elephant The Pig and the Sheep The Gardener and His Dog The Rivers and the Sea The Lion in Love The Beekeeper The Wolf and the Horse The Bat, the Bramble, and the Seagull The Dog and the Wolf The Wasp and the Snake The Eagle and the Beetle The Fowler and the Lark The Fisherman Piping The Weasel and the Man The Ploughman, the Ass, and the Ox Demades and His Fable The Monkey and the Dolphin The Crow and the Snake The Dogs and the Fox The Nightingale and the Hawk The Rose and the Amaranth The Man, the Horse, the Ox, and the Dog The Wolves, the Sheep, and the Ram The Swan The Snake and Jupiter The Wolf and His Shadow The Ploughman and the Wolf Mercury and the Man Bitten by an Ant The Wily Lion The Parrot and the Cat The Stag and the Lion The Impostor The Dogs and the Hides The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass The Fowler, the Partridge, and the Cock The Gnat and the Lion The Farmer and His Dogs The Eagle and the Fox The Butcher and His Customers Hercules and Minerva The Fox Who Served a Lion The Quack Doctor The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox Hercules and Plutus The Fox and the Leopard The Fox and the Hedgehog The Crow and the Raven The Witch The Old Man and Death The Miser The Foxes and the River The Horse and the Stag The Fox and the Bramble The Fox and the Snake The Lion, the Fox, and the Stag The Man Who Lost His Spade The Partridge and the Fowler The Runaway Slave The Hunter and the Woodman The Serpent and the Eagle The Rogue and the Oracle The Horse and the Ass The Dog Chasing a Wolf Grief and His Due The Hawk, the Kite, and the Pigeons The Woman and the Farmer Prometheus and the Making of Man The Swallow and the Crow The Hunter and the Horseman The Goatherd and the Wild Goats The Nightingale and the Swallow The Traveller and Fortune Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Introduction

Aesop embodies an epigram not uncommon in human history; his fame is all the more deserved because he never deserved it. The firm foundations of common sense, the shrewd shots at uncommon sense, that characterise all the Fables, belong not him but to humanity. In the earliest human history whatever is authentic is universal: and whatever is universal is anonymous. In such cases there is always some central man who had first the trouble of collecting them, and afterwards the fame of creating them. He had the fame; and, on the whole, he earned the fame. There must have been something great and human, something of the human future and the human past, in such a man: even if he only used it to rob the past or deceive the future. The story of Arthur may have been really connected with the most fighting Christianity of falling Rome or with the most heathen traditions hidden in the hills of Wales. But the word “Mappe” or “Malory” will always mean King Arthur; even though we find older and better origins than the Mabinogian; or write later and worse versions than the Idylls of the King. The nursery fairy tales may have come out of Asia with the Indo-European race, now fortunately extinct; they may have been invented by some fine French lady or gentleman like Perrault: they may possibly even be what they profess to be. But we shall always call the best selection of such tales Grimm’s Tales: simply because it is the best collection.

The historical Aesop, in so far as he was historical, would seem to have been a Phrygian slave, or at least one not to be specially and symbolically adorned with the Phrygian cap of liberty. He lived, if he did live, about the sixth century before Christ, in the time of that Croesus whose story we love and suspect like everything else in Herodotus. There are also stories of deformity of feature and a ready ribaldry of tongue: stories which (as the celebrated Cardinal said) explain, though they do not excuse, his having been hurled over a high precipice at Delphi. It is for those who read the Fables to judge whether he was really thrown over the cliff for being ugly and offensive, or rather for being highly moral and correct. But there is no kind of doubt that the general legend of him may justly rank him with a race