SU UCCESSIVE generations are ever adding to the stores of human thought enshrined in the world's literature. The feeble progeny of little minds soon perish. Great thoughts never die. Begotten by some giant mind-pervaded by a vital and imperishable germ-the inspiration of inborn genius-they live on from age to age, enriching the generations of all time. They appeal to some universal instinct, passion, or principle; embody some mighty truth; or inculcate some moral lesson, the force of which is immediately perceived and acknowledged. Truth and beauty, the offspring of genius, are immortal, whether painted on canvas, incarnated in marble, graven on wood or steel, or inscribed in the living book. These remarks apply, in no inconsiderable degree, to the leading constituents of the work now reproduced-The Fables of Æsop, and the artistic productions of the Bewicks. One of the most ancient, interesting, and useful methods of instilling moral instruction was by the device of allegory, parable, or fable. Fable is an ingenious method of conveying advice and instruction, without seeming so to do, by a diverting little narrative, which, attracting attention, irresistibly chains it till the moral is imperceptibly rooted in the mind, there to influence, for the better it may be, all future actions of importance. Esop was, and is, the most favourite of Fabulists, of whom a fair and goodly succession have since appeared; but still he maintains, and will continue to maintain, the foremost place in literature as a writer of instructive and entertaining Fables. We here reprint an edition comparatively unknown in the present generation, illustrated by the graver of Bewick, and arranged by the pen of Goldsmith. Bewick and Goldsmith's early works are comparatively unknown to the literary and reading world. We all know that Bewick designed and engraved the inimitable "British Quadrupeds," "Birds," "Fables," &c., and that Goldsmith wrote the "Vicar of Wakefield," "Traveller," "Deserted Village," &c.; but what do we know of their early works-the progressive steps by which they attained their wondrous and well-earned celebrity? It has been the pleasing pursuit of the Editor (for some years) to search for, and rescue from destruction and oblivion, all attainable early works of Bewick and Goldsmith. The result has exceeded his most sanguine expectations. He has discovered at least. twenty little works written by Goldsmith during his weary hours of adversity, all bearing strong internal. evidence of the author's mind and style. The early editions of the present work were printed by T. Saint, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. We will here give a very brief resumé of Bewick's earliest works (published by Saint), with a few woodcuts from the original blocks, thus illustrating the progressive stages of pictorial fine art by which Thomas Bewick succeeded in producing the wood-engravings which embellish the present volume; of which (edit. 1784) Jackson, in his work on wood-engraving (1861, p. 480), says: " He (Bewick) evidently improved as his talents were exercised; for the cuts in the 'Select Fables,' 1784, are generally much superior to those in 'Gay's Fables,' 1779. The animals are better drawn and engraved; the sketches of landscape in the backgrounds are more natural; and the engraving of the foliage of the trees and bushes is not unfrequently scarcely inferior to that of his later productions." Jackson gives three examples of these Fable cuts in his work, at pp. 480, 503 ("WoodEngravings," 1861). Thomas Bewick was apprenticed to R. Beilby, October 1, 1767. It is probable that the cuts given in the next page are among the very first engraved by Thomas Bewick during his apprenticeship, and were used in "A New Invented Horn Book," also in "Battledores," " Primers," and "Reading Easies." He then executed the diagrams for Hutton on Mensuration, 4to, 1770. One of the cuts is given in "Jackson" (p. 475), a representation of St. Nicholas' celebrated steeple. This is the first known pictorial attempt of Bewick's. |