Æsop’s Fables
(See page 153)
A Version for
Young Readers
By
Illustrated by
Charles Livingston Bull
Ginn and Company
Boston—New York—Chicago—London
Atlanta—Dallas—Columbus—San Francisco
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY GINN AND COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
321.11
THE Athenæum Press
GINN AND COMPANY·PROPRIETORS·BOSTON·U.S.A.
PREFACE
THE good fortune which has attendedthe earlier edition of this book is a proofthat there is less occasion now thanformerly to plead the cause of fables for usein elementary schools. And yet their value isstill too little recognized. The homely wisdom,which the fables represent so aptly, was a morecommon possession of intelligent people of ageneration or two ago than it is at the presenttime. It had then a better chance of beingpassed on by natural tradition than is now thecase among the less homogeneous parentageof our school children. And there has neverbeen a greater need than now for the kind ofseed-sowing for character that is afforded bythis means. As in the troubled times in Greecein Æsop’s day, twenty-five centuries ago, moralteaching to be salutary must be largely shornof didactic implications and veiled with witand satire. This insures its most vital workingwherever its teaching is pertinent. To be[iv]whipped, warned, shamed, or encouraged, andso corrected, over the heads of animals as theyare represented in the expression of theirnative traits, is the least offensive way that canfall to a person’s lot. Among several hundredepisodes, knowledge of which is acquired inchildhood as a part of an educational routine,most conservative estimates would allow forlarge, substantial results in practical wit andwisdom, to be reaped as later life calls for them.
It is well recognized by scholars, and shouldbe taught to children, that not all the fablesattributed to Æsop are of so early a date.Imitations of his genius all along the centurieshave masqueraded under his name. Factsabout him appear in the Introduction.
No occasion has been found to change inthis edition the style of presentation so highlyapproved in the original one; but, as a considerablenumber of the stories, especially in theearlier pages of the book, are amplified somewhatin language form to accommodate themto the need