Part 1 (2/2)
There the old man sits in bronze, as he used to sit at his window, clad in his beloved dressing gown, an open book in his hand.
Around the monument (says his biographer) a number of children are always at play, and the poet seems to smile benignly on them from his bronze easy chair. Perhaps the Grecian children of long ago played about Aesop's statue in Athens, for Lysippus the celebrated sculptor designed and erected a monument in his memory.
Read Krilof's ”Education of a Lion” and ”The Lion and the Mosquitoes” while his life is fresh in your mind. Then turn to ”What Employment our Lord Gave to Insects” and ”How Sense was Distributed,” in the quaint African fables. Glance at ”The Long-tailed Spectacled Monkey” and ”The Tune that Made the Tiger Drowsy,” so full of the very atmosphere of India. Then re-read some old favourite of Aesop and imagine you are hearing his voice, or that of some Greek story-teller of his day, ringing down through more than two thousand years of time.
There is a deal of preaching in all these fables,--that cannot be denied,--but it is concealed as well as possible. It is so disagreeable for people to listen while their faults and follies, their foibles and failings, are enumerated, that the fable-maker told his truths in story form and thereby increased his audience. Preaching from the mouths of animals is not nearly so trying as when it comes from the pulpit, or from the lips of your own family and friends!
Whether or not our Grecian and Indian, African and Russian fable-makers have not saddled the animals with a few more faults than they possess--just to bolster up our pride in human nature--I sometimes wonder; but the result has been beneficial.
The human rascals and rogues see themselves clearly reflected in the doings of the jackals, foxes, and wolves and may get some little distaste for lying, deceit and trickery.
We make few fables now-a-days. We might say that it is a lost art, but perhaps the world is too old to be taught in that precise way, and though the story writers are as busy as ever, the story-tellers (alas!) are growing fewer and fewer.
If your ear has been opened by faery tales you will have learned already to listen to and interpret a hundred voices unheard by others. A comprehension of faery language leads one to understand animal conversation with perfect ease, so open the little green doors that lead into the forest, the true Land of Fable. Open them softly and you will hear the Beasts talk Wisdom.
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
THE FABLES OF AESOP
”'Twas the Golden Age when every brute Had voice articulate, in speech was skilled, And the mid-forests with its synods filled.
The tongues of rock and pine-leaf then were free; To s.h.i.+p and sailor then would speak the sea; Sparrows with farmers would shrewd talk maintain; Earth gave all fruits, nor asked for toil again.
Mortals and G.o.ds were wont to mix as friends-- To which conclusion all the teaching tends Of sage old Aesop.”
BABRIUS
THE FABLES OF AESOP
The Power of Fables
Demades, a famous Greek orator, was once addressing an a.s.sembly at Athens on a subject of great importance, and in vain tried to fix the attention of his hearers. They laughed among themselves, watched the sports of the children, and in twenty other ways showed their want of interest in the subject of the discourse.
Demades, after a short pause, spoke as follows:
”Ceres one day journeyed in company with a Swallow and an Eel.” At this there was marked attention and every ear strained now to catch the words of the orator. ”The party came to a river,” continued he; ”the Eel swam across, and the Swallow flew over.” He then resumed the subject of his harangue.
A great cry, however, arose from the people, ”And Ceres? and Ceres?”
cried they. ”What did Ceres do?”
”Why, the G.o.ddess was, as she is now,” replied he, ”mightily offended that people should have their ears open to any sort of foolery, and shut to words of truth and wisdom.”
The Wolf and the Lamb
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