bulift; who by conferring upon them the gift of language, contrives to make their inftincts more intelligible,and their examples more determinate! But these are not his only actors. The fabulift has one advantage above all other writers whatsoever; as all the works both of art and nature are more immediately at his difpofal. He has, in this refpect, a liberty not allowed to epick, or dramatick writers; who are undoubtedly more limited in the choice of perfons to be employed. He has authority to prefs into his fervice, every kind of existence under heaven: not only beafts, birds, infects, and all the animal creation; but flowers, fhrubs, trees, and all the tribe of vegetables. Even mountains, fofils, minerals, and the inanimate works of nature, difcourfe articulately at his command, and act the part which he affigns them. The virtues, vices, and every property of beings, receive from him a local habitation and a In fhort he may perfonify, bestow life, fpeech and action on whatever he thinks proper. name. It is eafy to imagine what a fource of novelty and variety this muft open, to a genius capable of conceiving, and of employing, these ideal perfons in a proper manner : what an opportunity it affords him to diverfify his images, and to treat the fancy with change of objects; while he ftrengthens the understand ing, or regulates the paffions, by a fucceffion of truths. To raise beings like thefe into a state of action and intelligence, gives the fabulist an undoubted claim to that first character of the poet, a creator. I rank him not, as I faid before, with the writers of epick or dramatick poems; but the maker of pins or needles is as much an artist, as an anchor-fmith: and a painter in miniature may fhew as much skill, as he who paints in the largest proportions. When thefe perfons are once raifed, we must carefully injoin them proper tasks; and affign them fentiments and language fuitable to their feveral natures, and refpective properties. repre A raven should not be extolled for her voice, nor a bear be fented with an elegant shape. 'Twere a very obvious inftance of abfurdity, to paint an hare, cruel; or a wolf, compaffionate. An afs were but ill qualified to be general of an army, though he may well enough ferve perhaps for one of the trumpeters. But fo long as popular opinion allows to the lion,magnanimity; rage, to the tiger; ftrength, to the mule; cunning, to the fox; and buffoonery, to the monkey; why may not they fupport the characters of an Agamemnon, Achilles, Ajax, Ulyffes, and Therfites? The truth is, when moral actions are with judgment attributed to the brute creation, we fcarce perceive that nature is at all violated by the fabulift. He appears, at most, to have only tranflated their language. His lions, wolves, and foxes, behave and argue as thofe creatures would, had they originally been endowed with the human faculties of speech and reason. But greater art is yet required, whenever we perfonify inanimate beings. Here the copy fo far deviates from the great lines of nature, that without the, nicest care, reafon will revolt against the fiction. However, beings of this fort, managed ingeniously and with addrefs, recommend the fabulift's invention by the grace of novelty and of variety. Indeed the analogy between things natural and artificial, animal and inanimate, is often fo very firiking, that we can, with feeming propriety, give paffions and fentiments to every individual part of existence. Appearance favours the deception. The vine may be enamoured of the elm; her embraces testify her paffion. The fwelling mountain may, naturally enough, be delivered of a moufe. The gourd may reproach the pine, and the sky-rocket infult the ftars. The axe may follicit a new handle of the foreft; and the moon, in her female character, requeft a fashionable garment. Here is nothing incongruous; nothing that fhocks the reader with impropriety. On the other hand, were the axe to defire a perriwig, and the moon petition for a new pair of boots; probability would then be violated, and the abfurdity become too glaring." SECT. IV. 1. On the Language of Fable. "The most beautiful fables that ever were invented, may be disfigured by the language in which they are cloathed. Of this, poor Elop, in fome of his English dreffes, affords a melancholy proof. The ordinary ftile of fable should be familiar, but alfo elegant. Were I to inftance any ftyle that I fhould prefer on this occafion, it fhould be that of Mr. Addifon's tales in the Spectator. That cafe and fimplicity, that concifenefs and propriety, that fubdued and decent humour he fo remarkably discovers there; feems to have qualifyed him for a fabulift, almoft beyond any other writer. But to return. The Familiar, fays Mr. La Motte, to whofe ingenious effay I have often been obliged in this difcourfe, is the general tone, or accent of Fable. It was thought fufficient, on its firft appearance, to lend the animals our most common language. Nor indeed have they any extraordinary pretenfions to the fublime; it being requifite they fhould peak with the fame fimplicity that they behave. The familiar alfo is more proper for infinuation, than the elevated; this being the language of reflection, as the former is the voice of fentimont. We guard ourselves againft the one, but lie open to the other; and inftruction will always the most effectually fway us, when it appears leaft jealous of its rights and privileges. The familiar ftyle however that is here required, notwithstanding that appearance of eafe which is its character, is perhaps more difficult to write, than the more elevated or fublime. A writer more readily perceives when he has rifen above the common language; than he perceives, in fpeaking this language, whether he has made the choice that is moft fuitable to the occafion: and it is nevertheless, upon this happy choice depends all the charms of the familiar. Moreover, the elevated ftyle deceives and feduces, altho' it be not the beft chofen; whereas the familiar can procure itfelf no fort of refpect, if it be not eafy, natural, juft, delicate, and unaffected. A fabulift must therefore bestow great attention upon his ftyle and even labour it fo much the more, that it may appear to have coft him no pains at all. The on which it is allowable, and even expedient to change the ftyle. The language of a fable muft rife or fall in conformity to the fubject. A lion, when introduced in his regal capacity, must hold difcourfe in a ftrain fomewhat more elevated than a Country-Moufe. The lionefs then becomes his Queen, and the beasts of the foreft are called his Subjects: The authority of Fontaine juftifies thefe opinions in regard to ftyle. His fables are perhaps the best examples of the genteel amiliar, as Sir Roger L'Etrange affords the groffeft, of the indelicate and low, When we read that " while the frog and the moufe were difputing it at fwords point, down comes a kite porudering upon them in the interim, and gobbets up both toge-method that offers at once to the ther to part the fray." And imagination, both the animal and "where the fox reproaches a bevy the perfon he is defigned to repreof jolly goffiping wenches making fent. Again, the buffoon-monkey merry over a difh of pullets, that, if fhould avoid that pomp of phrafe, be but peeped into a hen-rooft, which the owl employs as her beit they always made a bawling with pretence to wifdom. Unless the their dogs and their baftards; while flyle be thus judiciously varyed, it you yourselves, fays he, can lie will be impoffible to preferve a juft Stuffing your guts with your hens diftinction of character. and capons, and not a word of the pudding." This may be familiar, but is alfo coarse and vulgar; and cannot fail to difguft a reader that has the leaft degree of taste or delicacy. The ftyle of fable then must be fimple and familiar; and it muft likewife be correct and elegant. By the former, I would advife that it fhould not be loaded with figure and metaphor; that the difpofition of words be natural; the turn of -fentences eafy; and their conftruction, unembarrafs'd. By elegance, I would exclude all coarfe and provincial terms; all affected and puerile conceits; all obfolete and pedantic phrases. To this I would adjoin, as the word perhaps implies, a certain finishing polifh, which gives a grace and fpirit to the whole; and which, tho' it have always the appearance of nature, is almost ever the effect of art. But, notwithstanding all that has been faid, there are fome occafions I Descriptions, at once concife and pertinent, adds a grace to fable but are then moft happy, when included in the action: whereof the fable of Boreas and the Sun affords us an example. An epithet well chofen is often a defcription, in itSelf; and fo much the more agreeable, as it the lefs retards us, in our purfuit of the catastrophe. I might enlarge much further on the fubject, but perhaps I may appear to have been too diffuse already. Let it fuffice to hint, that little strokes of humour, when arifing naturally from the fubject; and incidental reflections, when kept in due fubordination to the principal, add a value to thefe compofitions. Thefe latter however fhould be employed very sparingly, and with great addrefs; be very few and very fhort: It is fcarcely enough that they naturally Spring out of the fubject; they fhould be. fuch as to appear neceffary and effential parts of the fable. And when thefe embellishments, pleafing in them themselves, tend to illuftrate the main action, they then afford that nameless grace remarkable in Fontaine and fome few others; and which perfons of the beft difcernment will more easily conceive, than they can explain. FABLE XIII. The Stag drinking. A ftag quenching his thirft in a clear lake, was ftruck with the beauty of his horns, which he faw reflected in the water. At the fame time, obferving the extreme flendernefs of his legs; What pity it is, faid he, that fo fine a creature fhould be furnished with fo defpicable a set of spindle fhanks! what a truly noble animal I fhould be, were my legs in any degree anfwerable to my horns! In the midst of this foliloquy, he was alarmed with the cry of a pack of hounds. He immediately flies over the foreft, and left his purfuers fo far behind, that he might probably have efcaped; but taking into a thick wood, his horns were entangled in the branches, where he was held till the hounds came up, and tore him in pieces. In his last moments, he thus exclaimed -How ill do we judge of our own true advantages! the legs which I defpifed would have borne me away in fafety, had not my favourite antlers betrayed me to ruin. FABLE I. to fell him. That he might get thither fresh and in good condition, they drove him on gently before them. Trey had not gone far, when they met a company of travellers. Sure, fay they, you ́are mighty careful of your afs: methinks one of you might as well get up and ride, as let him walk on at his ease, while you trudge after him on foot. In compliance with this advice, the old man fet his fon on the beaft. They had fcarce advanced a quarter of a mile further, when they met another company. You lazy booby, faid one of the party, why don't you get down, and let your poor father ride? Upon this, the old man made his fon difmount, and got up himself. In this manner they had not marched many furlongs, when a third company began to infult the father. You hardhearted, unnatural wretch, fay they, how can you fuffer that poor lad to wade through the dirt, while you like an alderman ride at your eafe? The good-natured miller flood corrected, and immediately took his fon up behind him. And now, the next man they met exclaimed with more vehemence and indignation than all the rest. Was there ever fuch a couple of lazy boobies! to overload in fo unconfcionable a manner a poor dumb creature, who is far lefs able to carry them than they are to carry him! The good old man, perplexed with variety of opinions, was half inclined to make the experiment, but was fufficiently convinced by this time, that there cannot be a more fruitless attempt, than to en The Miller, bis Son, and their Afs. deavour to please all mankind. A miller and his fon were driving their afs to market, in order FABLE FABLE VI. The Mifer and the Mag-pye. As a mifer fate at his defk, counting over his heaps of gold; a mag-pye eloping from his cage, picked up a guinea, and hopped away with it. The mifer, who never failed to count his money over a fecond time, immediately miffed the piece, and rifing up from his feat in the utmoft confternation, obferved the felon hiding it in a crevice of the floor. And art thou, cry'd he, that worft of thieves, who haft robbed me of my gold, without the plea of neceflity, and without regard to its proper ufe? But thy life fhall atone for fo prepofterous a villainy. Soft words, good mafter, quoth the mag-pye. Have I then injured you, in any other fenfe than you defraud the public? And am I not ufing your money in the fame manner you do yourfelf? If I must lofe my life for hidding a fingle guinea, what do you, I pray, deferve, who fecrete fo many thoufands. |