u t and his writings have been highly admired for their good fenfe and usefulness, in all ages. The plans of his Fables are commended for the fame elegance as his ftyle. He has been highly admired for his writings of this kind in all ages. Quintilian recommends them as the first object in the inftruction of children; and Plato, when he is banishing the fabulous ftories of Homer and Hefiod, advifes the ufe of this fort of Fables in his Commonwealth; in both of which he is strongly followed by Philoftratus; who says, "That they were more proper than all other Fables, to infpire us with wif X Librum exarabo tertium fopi ftylo. Lib. 3. Prol. ver. 30. Laertius has preferved a couplet in Socrates' tranflation of one of his Fables, remarkable only for its particular plainnefs: Αίσωπος πολελεζε Κορίνθιον αςυ νεμέσι, Μη κρίνειν αξέλην λαοδίκω σοφιη. And the Fables which Plutarch (in his Banquet of the Sages) has put into Esop's own mouth, are remarkably fhort and clear. In quibufdam [fabulis] et argumentum ex ficto locatur, et per mendacia ipfe relationis ordo contexitur; ut funt ille fopi Fabulæ, elegantiâ fictionis illuftres. Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. lib. 1. cap. 2. u Efopi fabellas, que fabulis nutricularum proxime fuccedunt, narrare fermone puro et nihil fe fupramodum extollente, deinde eandem gracilitatem ftilo exigere, condifcant. Inftitut. Orat. 1. c. 9. W Της δε εγκριθείας (μυθος) πεισομεν τας τροφές τε καὶ μητερας λέχειν τοις παισι καὶ πλατίειν ψυχας αυλων τοις μύθοις, πολυ μάλλον η τα σώματα τας χεςσι. Plato de Republicâ, lib. 2. * Philoftratus, Book 5. ch. 5. dom." The Athenians, in the age when learning was at its greatest perfection among them, fhowed their high opinion of Efop and his writings, by the noble ftatue they erected to his memory, and by the celebrated sculptor they employed for that purpose. The great excellence of his way of writing confifts in blending of the agreeable and the a Y lopo ingentem ftatuam pofuere Attici. Phædrus, Epift. to B. 2. ver. 1. The Greeks ufed to fet up ftatues, larger than the life, to compliment their kings, heroes, and gods: of this kind the ftatue here mentioned, in honour of Elop, seems to have been. They fet up, at the fame time, feven ftatues to the famous contemporary fages of Greece; and this flatue of Efop at the head of them all. Danet, the commentator to the Delphin edition, on the place; from the following epigram of Agathais: Ευ γε ποιων, Αυσιππε γέρων, Σικυωνε πλαγα, Δείκελον Αισωπε ςησαν το Σαμία, Επία σοφων, εμπροσθεν επει κείνοι μεν ανάγκην, The great Lyfippus. a Thus, where Phædrus fays that he imitates Efop in his 1ft book of Fables, he immediately adds,. Duplex libelli dos eft; quod rilum movet, Introd. to B. 1. ver. 4. A. Gellius prefers him to all the philofophers on this very account; and Avienus attributes fo happy a thought to an infpiration from Heaven (note 86). Apollonius did the fame, though in a different manner (Philoftratus, B. 5.. chap. 5.); the latter fuppofing this light to have been given him by Mercury, and the former from the oracle at Delphi. inftructive fo well together: from which Horace might poffibly take the hint for that rule, which he feems to diftinguifh as the most confiderable of any in his Art of Poetry. d b It is no wonder that works fo ufeful, fo pleafing, and fo much recommended, were in every body's hands: they were fo especially at Athens, the great feat of science; and about the time that arts and knowledge were both at their greatest height. The Fables of Efop were generally the first book which was read by their youth, and perhaps one of the laft which fome of them quitted. e f Plutarch mentions Efop among the au thors most proper for forming philofophers; and indeed his diftinguishing character was Omne tulit pun&tum, qui mifcuit utile dulci; It was a proverbial expreffion there, for a man who was entirely ignorant, That he had never read Esop." Oud AιOWTOV Werannas Ariftophanes, Aves, ver. 471: or, as it is in Galen, Oude Aiowo μμanas. De Simplicibus Medicam. xi. The reafon of this proverb (as the commentator on Ariftophanes fays) was "their reading him there with eagernefs.” Ότι τον λογοποιὸν Δίσωπον δια σπεδης ειχον. d The Athenians paid that fignal compliment to Efop, of fetting up his ftatue above thofe of all the feven fages, in that great age in which Lyfippus and Apelles, and Ariftotle, Plato, and Xenophon flourished. e Fabulas primum tradere pueris folent;quià animos eorum, adhuc molles, ad meliores facilè vias instituunt vitæ. Prifcian. f Ου μόνον τα Αισωπεία μυθαρια, και τας ποιήλικας υποθεσεις διερχομενοι αλλα και τα περί των ψυχων δογματα μεμιγμένα μυθολογία μεθ' ηδονής ενθεσιωσι. De Audiendis Poetis, wisdom, attended (as has been fhown before) with a perpetual flow of pleafantry. Phædrus calls him The Sage; and fays, "That he faw through all Nature." It must be very difficult, at this distance of time, to determine which of the Greek Fables, that are published as Efop's were really of his writing. Several of them may be fo; but we do not know how to diftinguish them. I fhould think it more eafy to catch him at the rebound; I mean, in the profeft tranflations of him. Phædrus the firft of the Roman poets who wrote Fables, begins with informing his reader that he has turned into verfe feveral of thofe which (as was remarked before) were written in profe by Efop. He confirms this frequently afterward, in general; and has pointed out fome in particular, as translated from Efop. He makes mention of these much of k Sophus. Phæd. Lib. 3. Fab. 14. ver. 9. Natura nunquam verba cui potuit dare. Id. Lib. 3. Fab. 3. ver. 15. i Phædrus, after fpeaking of Elop, fays, Quoniam occuparet alter ne primus forem, Ne folus effet ftudui. Close to B. 2. ver. 6. It is probable that Phædrus had not published his Fables, when Seneca wrote his Confolation to Polybius, toward the latter end of the reign of Claudius: for that philofopher fays in it to his friend, Non audeo te ufque eo producere, ut fabellas quoque, & Efopeos logos, intentatum Romanis ingeniis opus, folitâ tibi venuftate connectas: difficile eft quidem, ut ad hæc hilariora fludia jam vehementer perculfus animus tam citò poffit accedere. Seneca, Confol. ad Pol. c. 27. k Phædrus, Introd. to B. 1. ver. 2. tener toward the beginning of his work, than in the following parts of it; and I am apt to think, that most of the Fables" in the laft book are of his own invention. Avienus, the next Latin fabulift that I know of, though at the diftance of feveral centuries, agrees with Phadrus in profeffing to follow Efop, and giving his book the title of Efopian Fables; but does not point him out as the author of any one of them in particular. о It has been already faid, that Socrates tranflated fome of his Fables. As the Athenians, not long after their putting that great man to death, grew as fond of his memory as they had been cruel to his perfon, it is probable 1 Lib. 4. Fab. 2, 3, and 10.-Lib. 4. Fab. 16. He mentions Efop and his actions in feveral others; but does not fay those Fables themselves are taken from his. One would think, however, from what he fays, Lib. 4. Fab. 20, that most of the foregoing Fables were taken from Efop. Quid judicare cogitur Livor modò, Licet diffimulet, pulchrè tamen intelligo. m From the Introd. to Lib. 5. a Avienus, according to Gyraldus, lived in the time of Theodofius and his fons. There are forty-two Fables in elegiac verfe, published as his, in Maittaire's Corpus Poet. Lat. vol. 2. p. 1338, &c. • Hujus materiæ ducem nobis Æfopum noveris. From Bayle, Art. Æf. note A. P See note, p. xxviii. |