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- Herausgeber: DigiCat
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
The Fables of Æsop, and Others presents a rich tapestry of moral lessons couched in deceptively simple stories featuring anthropomorphic animals and everyday scenarios. Renowned for their brevity and wit, Aesop's fables employ an allegorical style that engages readers in timeless themes of justice, human behavior, and ethical conduct. The fables draw from a diverse cultural backdrop, reflecting not only the Greco-Roman milieu of Aesop's time but also an enduring universal appeal that transcends temporal and geographic boundaries. Aesop, a figure shrouded in myth and mystery, is often thought to have lived in ancient Greece around the 6th century BCE. His narratives likely stem from an oral tradition, passing through generations as a means to convey wisdom and moral insights to both the elite and the common folk. Aesop's own life, marred by servitude and trials, finds expression in his work, suggesting a deep understanding of human struggles and ethical dilemmas. This collection of fables is essential reading not only for those interested in literature and folklore but also for anyone seeking lessons applicable to contemporary life. With its profound moral undertones and charming prose, The Fables of Æsop, and Others remains an indispensable companion in fostering critical thinking and ethical reflection.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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The Fables of Æsop, and Others
Table of Contents
THE FABLES OF ÆSOP,AND OTHERS,WITH DESIGNS ON WOOD,
BYTHOMAS BEWICK.
“The wisest of the Ancients delivered their Conceptions of the Deity, and their Lessons of Morality, in Fables and Parables.”
NEWCASTLE:
PRINTED BY E. WALKER, FOR T. BEWICK AND SON. SOLD BY THEM, LONGMAN AND CO. LONDON, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1818.
THE PREFACE DEDICATORY.
To the Youth of the British Isles.
In collecting together, for your use and benefit, some of the prudential maxims, and moral apothegms, of the ancient sages, the Publishers of this volume have been stimulated by an ardent desire to render this excellent mode of instruction as agreeable as possible; and, at the same time, to impress the precepts contained in the Fables more forcibly on your minds, they have endeavoured to make the embellishments worthy of your notice and examination.
If the seeds of morality and patriotism be early sown, they will spring up, and ripen to maturity, in a confirmed love of truth, integrity and honour; and without these for his guide, no man can do credit to himself or his country. This consideration is of vital importance; for our comfort and happiness through life, mainly depend upon a strict adherence to the rules of morality and religion. The youth who is early tutored in an invincible regard for his own character, will soon perceive the duties imposed upon him by society, and will have pleasure in fulfilling them, as much for his own satisfaction as for the sake of his fellow men: but when the latent powers of the mind are neglected, or not directed into the paths of rectitude, by good precepts and worthy examples, vice and folly enter the opening, and lead their victim into evils and errors, which render his life miserable, and sometimes hurry him into an ignominious grave.
To delineate the characters and passions of men, under the semblance of Lions, Tigers, Wolves, and Foxes, is not so extravagant a fiction as it may at first sight seem: for the innocent and inexperienced will find, when they engage in the busy scenes of the world, that they will have to deal with men of dispositions not unlike those animals; and that their utmost vigilance will be required to guard against their violence or machinations.
In attempting to form an estimate of the characters of mankind, many gradations and shades will be found between the two extremes of virtue and vice. The philanthropist views with feelings of benevolence the wavering balance, and adds those he finds on the confines, to the number of the virtuous; while the misanthrope, with gloomy malignity, endeavours to include within the circle of vice, those who are standing upon the ill-defined line of division, and thus swells the number of the bad. Both observe with pain, that great numbers exist, whose whole lives seem to be spent in disfiguring the beautiful order which might otherwise reign in society, regardless of the misery which their wickedness scatters around them. They see men, who suffer their bad passions and gross appetites to be the sole rule of their conduct; and whether these shew themselves in an inordinate ambition, a thirst after false glory, or an insatiable avarice, their consequences are pernicious, and diffuse evil, distress, and ruin among mankind, in proportion to the extent to which their baneful influence reaches. The misanthrope, in contemplating the scene of mischief and disorder, is apt to arraign the wisdom and justice of Providence for permitting it to exist; but the philanthropist views it with a more extended range of vision; and while he laments the evil, he attributes the apparent want of human feelings in the actors, to an early perversion of intellect, or to a stifling of the reasoning power given by the Great Creator to man for his guide, and without which he is the worst animal in the creation, a mere two-legged Tiger. Upon the childhood and youth of such men, the great truth taught by the inspired and wisest writers of all ages, that “no life can be pleasing to God which is not useful to man,” has not been sufficiently impressed, or probably the energy with which they pursue their wicked career might have been led into a different course, and instead of the scourges, they would have been the benefactors of mankind.
When religion and morality are blended together in the mind, they impart their blessings to all who seek the aid of the one and obey the dictates of the other, and their joint effects are seen and felt in the perpetual cheerfulness they impart. They incite the innocent whistle of the ploughman at his plough, of the cobler in his stall, and the song of the milk-maid at her pail: and it is a sign of their being perverted, when they engender melancholy notions; for these are the offspring of bigotry, fanaticism, and ignorance. The service of the Omnipotent is not of this gloomy cast; he has spread out the table of this beautiful world of wonders, for the use of his creatures, and has placed man at the head of it, that he might enjoy its bounties, as well as prepare himself for the approaching change to another, which inspiration has powerfully impressed on his soul as the unknowable region of his next advance. The materialist, in his dreary reveries, cannot comprehend this, neither will he acknowledge that his being placed here is equally as miraculous as that he should be placed in another world or worlds, progressively to improve, to all eternity: but to harbour doubts on this subject, is like disputing the wisdom, the justice, and the mercy of the Author of our being, who, according to the conceptions we form of his goodness, as exhibited in the design, the grandeur, and the immensity of creation, where every thing is systematic, regular, and in order, would never decree that man should be placed here instinctively to know his Maker—to take a short peep at the stupendous, the amazing whole—to view all these, and have powers of mind given him only to know and repugnantly to feel, that after a life mixed with turmoil, grief, and disease, he is to be annihilated! In our conception of things, and to the limited understanding which has been given us, all this would appear to be labour in vain.
The volume of the creation speaks alike to all, and cannot be defaced by man; but the ways of Providence are beyond his comprehension. Omnipotence has not been pleased to gratify his pride and vanity, nor to consult his understanding, in the government of the universe; but sufficient has been disclosed unto him to point out the moral duties he owes to society, and the religious worship due to his Maker, without groping after what is utterly beyond his reach: for our feeble reason is too weak to comprehend the divine essence; and our thoughts, on their utmost stretch, roll back on darkness. We reason, but we err: for how can we comprehend the immensity of endless space, of time and eternity, a beginning or an end; or what conceptions can we form of the Power which made the sun and worlds without number? Truly, this is far too much for a finite being, who does not know why he can move one of his own fingers, or cease to do so when he pleases! But all may know and fulfil their religious obligations, by reverencing and adoring their Creator, and walking humbly before him, and their moral duties, by being in their several stations, good sons, brothers, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, neighbours, and members of society.
Having, with humble diffidence, in this masquerade of life, attempted to point out to youth the exterior of the temple of virtue, and to lead them to its steps, the Editor leaves them there, respectfully recommending them to explore the whole interior, under the guidance of men more eminent for their mental powers and attainments in learning, philosophy, and piety. Of these, an illustrious band have placed, at every avenue and turning, their inestimable works, as directions to guide us to usefulness and respectability here, and eternal happiness hereafter.
Newcastle, September, 1818.
THE INTRODUCTION.
From time to time, in all ages, men inspired, or gifted with a superior degree of intellectual power, have appeared upon the stage of life, in order (by enlightening others) to fulfil the designs of Omnipotence, in uniting the world in a state of civilized society.
Patriarchs, or heads of families, at first directed or governed those who were immediately dependent upon them: these in time increased, and became clans; these again, by their quarrels, and their wars, were induced to elect chieftains or kings over a number of united clans,—from which were formed the various nations and kingdoms of the earth. In this early stage of the world, when men were ignorant and uncivilized, the chase and war seem almost wholly to have occupied their time and attention. Their kings ruled over them with despotic sway, and the will of the prince was the only law: and thus the barbarism of the subject and the tyranny of the ruler went hand in hand together. That over-swollen pride, which seems the natural accompaniment of despotic power, blinds the understandings of its possessors, and renders them wholly regardless of the important trust reposed in them. The evils arising out of their bad government, are felt, more or less, by the whole people over whom they preside; and pride and arrogance prevent the approach of sincerity and truth. The sycophant and the slave then only find admission, and all other men are kept at a distance. While kings and governors were of this character, the voice of truth could only reach their ears through allegory and fable, which took their rise in the infancy of learning, and seem to have been the only safe mode of conveying admonition to tyrants. This pleasing method of instilling instruction into the mind, has been found by experience to be the shortest and best way of accomplishing that end, among all ranks and conditions of men.
The first Fable upon record, is that of Jotham and the Trees, in the Bible; and the next, that of The Poor Man and his Lamb, as related by Nathan to King David, and which carried with it a blaze of truth that flashed conviction on the mind of the royal transgressor. Lessons of reproof, religion, and morality, were, we find, continually delivered in this mode, by the sages of old, to the exalted among mankind.
It is asserted by authors, that Apologues and Fables had their origin in the Eastern world, and that the most ancient of them were the productions of Veesh-nou Sarma, commonly called Pilpay, whose beautiful collections of Apologues were esteemed as sacred books in India and Persia, whence they were spread abroad among other nations, and were by them celebrated and holden in much estimation. They were translated from the Persian and Arabian into Greek, by Simeon Seth, a man of great learning, who was an officer of the imperial household at Constantinople about the year 1070. Seth’s Version was imitated in Latin by Piers Alfonse, a converted Jew, as early as the year 1107; and this is supposed to have been the first version of Pilpay’s Apologues that made its way, and became familiarized in Europe. The time in which Pilpay lived, seems not to be certainly known to the learned; but some of them suppose that the Fables of Æsop and others were grounded upon his models. The time in which Æsop lived is better ascertained, and of all the Fabulists who have amused and instructed mankind by their writings, his name stands pre-eminent. Authors fix his birth-place at Cotieum, in Phrygia Major. But the history of this remarkable person, who lived about 572 years before Christ, and about 100 years before Herodotus, the Greek historian, has been so involved in mystery, traditionary stories, and absurd conjectures, that any attempt to give a detail from such materials, would only serve to bewilder youth, and lead them into a labyrinth of error; and it would be impertinent to trouble the learned reader with that which must be sufficiently familiar to him.A The whole of the absurd fictions concerning this wise and amiable man, were invented by Maximus Planudes, a Greek monk.B Plutarch, and other authentic historians,C have, however, given a very different account of the illustrious Fabulist. It would appear, according to some of these relations, that Æsop, originally a shepherd’s boy, had risen from the condition of a slave, to great eminence, and that he lived in the service of Xanthus and Judman, or Idmon, in the island of Samos, and afterwards at Athens. Phædrus speaks of him as living the greater part of his life at the latter place, where, it appears, a handsome statue, executed by the hand of the famous statuary Lysippus, was erected to his memory, and placed before those of the seven sages of Greece.D He also notices his living at Samos, and interesting himself in a public capacity, in the administration of the affairs of that place; where Aristotle also introduces him as a public speaker, and records the fact of his reciting the fable of the Fox and the Hedgehog,E while pleading on behalf of a minister, upon the occasion of his being impeached for embezzling the public treasure. Æsop is also mentioned as speaking in a public capacity to the Athenians, at the time when Pisistratus seized upon their liberties.F Upon each of these occasions he is represented as having introduced a Fable into his discourse, in a witty and pleasing manner. He was holden in the highest veneration and esteem in his day, by all men eminent for their wisdom and virtue. It appears there was scarcely an author among the ancient Greeks who mixed any thing of morality in his writings, that did not either quote or mention Æsop. Plato describes Socrates as turning some of Æsop’s Fables into verse, during those awful hours which he spent in prison, immediately before his death. Aristophanes not only takes hints from Æsop, but mentions him much to his honour, as one whose works were, or ought to be, read before any other. Ennius and Horace have embellished their poetry from his stores; and ancient sages and authors all concur in bearing the most ample testimony to his distinguished merits. Plutarch, in his imaginary banquet of the seven wise men, among several other illustrious persons of ancient times, celebrated for their wit and knowledge, introduces Æsop, and describes him as being very courtly and polite in his behaviour. Upon the authority of Plutarch also, we fix the life of Æsop in the time of Crœsus, king of Lydia, who invited him to the court of Sardis. By this prince, he was holden in such esteem, as to be sent as his envoy to Periander, king of Corinth, which was about three hundred and twenty years after the time in which Homer lived, and 550 before Christ. He was also deputed by Crœsus to consult the oracle of Delphi. While on this embassy, he was ordered to distribute to each of the citizens, four minæG of silver, but some disputes arising between them and Æsop, he reproached them for their indolence, in suffering their lands to lie uncultivated, and in depending on the gratuities of strangers for a precarious subsistence: the quarrel, which it would appear ran high between them, ended in Æsop’s sending back the money to Sardis. This so exasperated the Delphians, that they resolved upon his destruction; and that they might have some colour of justice for what they intended, they concealed among his effects, when he was taking his departure from Delphi, a gold cup, consecrated to Apollo; and afterwards pursuing him, easily found what they themselves had hidden. On the pretext that he had committed this sacrilegious theft, they carried him back to the city, and notwithstanding his imprecating upon them the vengeance of heaven, they immediately condemned him to be cast from the rock Hypania, as the punishment of the pretended crime. Ancient historians say, that for this wickedness, the Delphians were for a long time visited with pestilence and famine, until an expiation was made, and then the plague ceased.
AThe curious enquirer is referred to the Essay on the Æsopean Fable, by Sir Brooke Boothby, bart. from which this sketch is extracted.
BPlanudes lived at Constantinople in the 14th century. His Fables were printed at Milan, A.D. 1480.
CThe first person who took great pains to detect and expose the follies and absurdities of Planudes’s Life of Æsop, and collected what could be known, was Bachet de Mezeriac, a man of great learning, who flourished about the year 1632.
DThese sages were Solon, Thales, Chilo, Cleobulus, Bias, Pittacus, and Periander, to whom Laertius adds Anacharsis, Maro, Pherecydes, Epimenides, and Pisistratus.
E“Ye men of Samos, let me entreat you to do as the Fox did; for this man, having got money enough, can have no further occasion to rob you; but if you put him to death, some needy person will fill his place, whose wants must be supplied out of your property.”
The Fable of the Fox and the Hedgehog was applied by Themistocles to dissuade the Athenians from removing their magistrates.—B. Boothby.
FThe Fable of the Frogs desiring a King.
GThe mina of silver was 12 ounces, about £3 sterling.
It was not until many ages after the death of Æsop, that his most prominent successor, Phædrus, arose. He translated Æsop’s Fables from the Greek into Latin, and added to them many of his own. Of Phædrus little is known, except from his works. He is said to have lived in the times of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, and to have died in the reign of the latter. The first printed edition of his Fables, with cuts, was published at Gauda, in 1482. Caxton published some of them in 1484, and Bonus Accursius in 1489, to which he prefixed Planudes’s Life of Æsop. But the most perfect edition of Phædrus’s Works was published in five volumes, by Peter Pithou, at Troyes, in 1596, from manuscripts discovered by him in the cities of Rheims and Dijon. To these have succeeded in later times, a numerous list of fabulists,H besides such of the poets as have occasionally interspersed Fables in their works. These, in their day, have had, and many of them still have, their several admirers; but Gay and Dodsley best maintain their ground in this country, as is proved by the regular demand for new editions. Croxall’s Fables, which were first published in 1722, with cuts on metal, in the manner of wood, have also had a most extensive sale; and Sir Brooke Boothby’s elegant little volumes, in verse, published in 1809, are now making their way into the public notice. The Editor of the present volume, in attempting to continue the same pleasing mode of conveying instruction, long since laid down as a guide to virtue, has quoted and compiled from other fabulists, whatever seemed best suited to his purpose. His sole object is utility, and he is not altogether without hope, that in attempting to embellish and perpetuate a fabric, which has its foundations laid in religion and morality, his efforts may not be wholly ineffectual to induce the young to keep steadily in view those great truths, which form the sure land-mark to the haven, where only they can attain peace and happiness.
H Sir Roger L’Estrange, born 1616, died 1704. John de la Fontaine, born 1621, died 1695. John Dryden, born 1631, died 1701. Antoine Houdart de la Motte, born 1672, died 1731. John Gay, born 1688, died 1732. Samuel Croxall, D.D. Archdeacon of Hereford, died 1752. Edward Moore, died 1757. Draper. Robert Dodsley, born 1703, died 1764. William Wilkie, born 1721, died 1772. Abbe Brotier, born 1722, died 1789.
THE TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A
PAGE
The Ape and her Young Ones
3
The Sensible Ass
69
Æsop and the Impertinent Fellow
81
The Angler and the Little Fish
111
The Ass and the Lion hunting
161
The Ass in the Lion’s Skin
187
The Ape chosen King
195
The Ant and the Fly
269
The Ant and the Grasshopper
307
The Ape and the Fox
319
Æsop at Play
333
The Ass eating Thistles
369
B
The Boy and his Mother
5
The Brother and Sister
31
The Shepherd’s Boy and the Wolf
61
The Bear and the Bee-Hives
119
The Bees, the Drones, and the Wasp
145
The Hunted Beaver
159
The Bull and the Goat
171
The Two Bitches
183
The Boar and the Ass
205
The Blackamoor
223
The Belly and the Members
275
The Boys and the Frogs
375
C
The Two Crabs
1
The Collier and the Fuller
13
The Cock and the Jewel
47
The Wanton Calf
57
The Crow and the Pitcher
63
The Cat and the Fox
107
The Cat and the Mice
149
Cæsar and the Slave
177
The Clown and the Gnat
189
The Countryman and the Snake
217
The Cock and the Fox
219
The Fighting Cocks
349
The Cock and the Fox
359
D
The Dog in the Manger
77
The Ship Dog
99
The Dog invited to Supper
109
The Dog and the Shadow
117
The Mischievous Dog
169
The Dog and the Sheep
207
The Dog and the Wolf
287
The One-eyed Doe
297
The Deer and the Lion
315
The Dove and the Bee
339
The Dog and the Cat
371
E
The Eagle, the Cat, and the Sow
39
The Eagle and the Fox
273
The Eagle and the Crow
301
F
The Proud Frog and the Ox
17
The Fox and the Vizor Mask
51
The Fox and the Crow
67
The Forester and the Lion
83
The Fox without a Tail
95
The Fox and the Ass
105
The Fox and the Tiger
115
The Frogs and their King
135
The Fir and the Bramble
143
The Frog and the Fox
147
Fortune and the Boy
153
The Fox and the Grapes
167
The Fisherman
173
The Fox and the Boar
175
The Frogs and the Fighting Bulls
179
The Two Frogs
199
The Fox and the Briar
201
The Fox and the Stork
215
The Fox and the HedgeHog
227
The Fox and the Goat
235
The Fowler and the Ring-dove
249
The Fowler and the Blackbird
263
The Fatal Marriage
277
The Fox and the Lion
285
The Flying Fish and the Dolphin
289
The Fox in the Well
311
The Fox and the Sick Lion
323
The Fox and the Countryman
331
The Fox and the Wolf
335
The Frogs and the Mice
353
The Fowler and the Lark
355
The Fowler and the Partridge
363
G
The Goat, the Kid, and the Wolf
29
The Goat and the Lion
101
The Gardener and his Dog
313
The Wild and the Tame Geese
351
H
The Husbandman and his Sons
15
Hercules and the Carter
37
The Drunken Husband
121
The Hen and the Swallow
127
The Hart and the Vine
157
The Old Hound
181
The Hen and the Fox
185
The Hare and the Tortoise
221
The Hares and the Frogs
251
The Harper
267
The Horse and the Stag
303
The Horse and the Lion
309
The Horse and the Ass
327
The Hawk and the Farmer
329
The Horse and the over-loaded Ass
343
The Husbandman and the Stork
345
I
Industry and Sloth
9
J
Jupiter and the Ass
79
Jupiter and the Camel
139
Jupiter and the Herdsman
209
Juno and the Peacock
237
Jupiter and Pallas
241
The Vain Jack-daw
255
K
The Bald Knight
87
The Kite and the Pigeons
281
The Sick Kite
283
The Kid and the Wolf
293
L
The Leopard and the Fox
21
The Lark and her Young Ones
41
The Lion and the Four Bulls
89
The Lion, the Tiger, and the Wolf
93
The Lioness and the Fox
123
The Lamb brought up by a Goat
125
The Old Lion
211
The Lion in Love
225
The Lion and other Beasts
239
The Lion and the Mouse
257
The Lion and the Frog
291
The Lion, the Wolf, and the Dog
367
M
The Master and his Scholar
7
The Young Man and the Swallow
11
The Mole and her Dam
27
The Young Men and the Cook
43
The Mule
45
Mercury and the Woodman
49
The Man and his Goose
55
The Old Man and his Sons
91
The Miser and his Treasure
97
A Man bitten by a Dog
113
The Envious Man and the Covetous
129
The Mice in Council
193
The Old Man and Death
197
The Man and the Weasel
203
The Magpie and the Sheep
213
The Man and his Two Wives
231
Mercury and the Carver
233
The Mountains in Labour
253
The Mouse and the Weasel
271
The Young Man and the Lion
279
The Country and the City Mouse
295
The Miller, his Son, and their Ass
305
The Young Man and his Cat
361
The Blind Man and the Lame
365
N
The Nurse and the Wolf
265
O
The Oak and the Reed
151
P
The Peacock and the Crane
23
The Two Pots
25
The Partridge and the Cocks
65
The Porcupine and the Snakes
131
The Polecat and the Cock
261
The Ploughman and Fortune
317
R
The Raven and the Serpent
337
S
The Stag looking into the Water
19
The Sheep Biter
33
The Swallow and other Birds
71
The Sow and the Wolf
133
The Stag and the Fawn
141
The Sow and the Bitch
163
The Satyr and the Traveller
165
The Sparrow and the Hare
229
The Stag in the Ox-Stall
247
The Sun and the Wind
325
The Serpent and the Man
341
The Shepherd turned Merchant
357
T
The Thief and the Dog
53
The Boasting Traveller
59
The Thieves and the Cock
73
The two Travellers
103
The Tortoise and the Eagle
259
The Trees and the Woodman
299
The Thief and the Boy
321
The Travellers and the Bear
347
The Trumpeter taken Prisoner
373
V
The Viper and the File
243
W
The Old Woman and her Maids
35
The Wolves and the Sick Ass
75
The Wolf, the Fox, and the Ape
85
The Old Woman and the Empty Cask
137
The Wolf and the Crane
155
The Wolf and the Lamb
191
The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
245
THE FABLES OF ÆSOP,AND OTHERS.
THE TWO CRABS.
Two Crabs, the mother and daughter, having been left by the receding tide, were creeping again towards the water, when the former observing the awkward gait of her daughter, got into a great passion, and desired her to move straight forward, in a more becoming and sprightly manner, and not crawl sideling along in a way so contrary to all the rest of the world. Indeed mother, says the young Crab, I walk as properly as I can, and to the best of my knowledge; but if you would have me to go otherwise, I beg you would be so good as to practise it first, and shew me by your own example how you would have me to conduct myself.
APPLICATION.
Ill examples corrupt even the best natural disposition, and it is in vain to instruct our children, their talents being only imitation, to walk by one rule, if we ourselves go by another. The good precepts which we may lay down to them, will be bestowed in vain, if they see by our own conduct, that we pursue a contrary course to that which we recommend to them. Parents therefore, who are desirous of working an effectual reformation in their children, should begin by making a visible amendment in themselves; and this is a duty they owe to society, as well as to their offspring, it being of the utmost importance to both, that probity and honour be early instilled into their youthful minds, as these grow with their growth, and while at the same time they command respect, they lay the foundation of their individual happiness through life.
THE APE AND HER YOUNG ONES.
An Ape having two young ones, was dotingly fond of one, but disregarded and slighted the other. One day she chanced to be surprized by the hunters, and had much ado to get off. However, she did not forget her favourite young one, which she took up in her arms, that it might be the more secure: the other, which she neglected, by natural instinct, leapt upon her back, and so away they scampered together; but it unluckily fell out, in the over-anxiety of her precipitate flight, confused and blinded with haste, that she struck her favourite’s head against a branch, which threw it on the ground, where the darling bantling was seized by the dogs and killed. The hated one, clinging close to her rough back, escaped all the danger of the pursuit.
APPLICATION.
The indulgence which parents shew to their children arises from the most amiable of human weaknesses; but it is not the less injurious in its effects, and therefore it is of great importance to guard against it, and not to suffer a blind fondness to transport us beyond the bounds of a discreet affection, for this often proves the ruin of the child. This fable is also intended to expose the folly of a system of favouritism in families, for experience shews that those children who are the least pampered and indulged usually make the best and cleverest men.
