: fore at Sardis with Croesus. Princes in those days thought themselves much honoured, when they could have such guests in their houses. Plutarch describes an entertainment,* which Periander gave these illustrious guests; and observes, at the same time, that the decent simplicity of it, adapted to the taste and character of the persons entertained, did him much more honour than the greatest magnificence could have done. The subject of their discourse at table was sometimes grave and serious, and sometimes pleasant and gay. One of the company proposed this question: Which is the most perfect popular government?-That, answered Solon, where an injury done to any private citizen is such to the whole body:That, says Bias, where the law has no superior :-That, says Thales, where the inhabitants are neither too rich nor too poor:-That, says Anacharsis, where virtue is honoured, and vice detested:-says Pittacus, Where dignities are always conferred upon the virtuous, and never upon the wicked:-says Cleobulus, Where the citizens fear blame more than punishment:-says Chilo, Where the laws are more regarded, and have more authority, than the orators. From all these opinions, Periander concluded, that the most perfect popular government would be that which came nearest to aristocracy, where the sovereign authority is lodged in the hands of a few men of honour and virtue. Whilst these wise men were assembled together at Periander's court, a courier arrived from Amasis, king of Egypt, with a letter for Bias, with whom that king kept a close correspondence. The purport of this letter was to consult him how he should answer a proposal made him by the king of Ethiopia, of his drinking up the sea; in which case the Ethiopian king promised to resign to him a certain number of cities in his dominions: but if he did not do it, then he, Amasis, was to give up the same number of his cities to the king of Ethiopia. It was usual in those days for princes to propound such enigmatical and puzzling questions to one another. Bias answered him directly, and advised him to accept the offer on the condition that the king of Ethiopia would stop all the rivers that flow into the sea: for the business was only to drink up the sea, and not the rivers. We find an answer to the same effect ascribed to Æsop. I must not here forget to take notice, that these wise men, of whom I have been speaking, were all lovers of poetry, and composed verses themselves, some of them a considerable number, upon subjects of morality and policy, which are certainly topics well worthy of the muses. Solon,† however, is reproached for having written some licentious verses; which may teach us what judgment we ought to form of these pretended wise men of the pagan world. Instead of some of these seven wise men, which I have mentioned, some people have substituted others; as Anacharsis for exam † Plut. in Solon. p. 79. * In Conv. sept. sap. ple, Myso, Epimenides, Pherecydes. The first of these is the most known in story. ANACHARSIS. Long before Solon's time the Nomad Scythians, were in great reputation for their simplicity, frugality, temperance and justice. Homer calls them a very just nation.* Anacharsis was one of these Scythians, and of the royal family. A certain Athenian, once having reproached him with his country:-My country, you think, replied Anacharsis, is no great honour to me and you, sir, are no great honour to your country.-His good sense, profound knowledge, and great experience, made him pass for one of the seven wise men. He wrote a treatise in verse upon the art military, and composed another tract on the laws of Scythia. He used to make visits to Solon. It was in conversation with him that he compared laws to cobwebs, which entangle only little flies, whilst wasps and hornets break through them. Being inured to the austere and poor life of the Scythians, he set little value upon riches. Cræsus invited him to come and see him and without doubt hinted to him, that he was able to mend his fortune. I have no occasion for your gold, said the Scythian in his answer: I come into Greece only to enrich my mind, and improve my understanding; I shall be very well satisfied, if I return into my own country, not with an addition to my wealth, but with an increase of knowledge and virtue. However, Anacharsis accepted the invitation, and went to that prince's court. We have already observed that Æsop was much surprised and dissatisfied at the cold and indifferent manner in which Solon viewed the magnificence of the palace, and the vast treasures of Crosus;t because it was the master, and not the house, that the philosopher wished to have reason to admire. Certainly, says Anacharsis to Æsop on that occasion, you have forgotten your own fable of the fox and panther. The latter, as her highest merit, could only show her fine skin, beautifully marked and spotted with different colours: the fox's skin, on the contrary, was very plain, but contained within it a treasure of subtilties and stratagems of infinite value. This very image, continued the Scythian, shows me your own cha racter. You are affected with a splendid outside whilst you pay or no regard to what is truly the man, that is, to that which is in him, and consequently properly his. little ESOP. I join Esop with the wise men of Greece; not only be cause he was often amongst them, but because he taught true wisdom with far more art than they do who teach it by rules and definitions. Iliad. lib. N. v. 6. † Plut. in Conv. sept. sap. p. 155. Æsopus ille è Phrygiå fabulator, haud immeritò sapiens existimatus est · cùm quæ utilia monitu suasuque erant, non severe, non imperiosè præcepit et censuit, ut philosophis mos est, sed festivos delectabilesque apologos commentus, res salubriter ac prospicienter animadversas, in mentes animosque hominum, cum audiendi quâdam illeceorâ induit. Aut. Gell. Noct. Att. lib. ii. cap. 29. Esop was by birth a Phrygian. He had abundance of wit; but was terribly deformed: he was short, hunch-backed, and horridly ugly in face, having scarce the figure of a man; and for a very considerable time almost without the use of speech. As to his condition of life, he was a slave; and the merchant who had bought him, found it very difficult to get him off his hands, so extremely were people shocked at his unsightly figure and deformity. The first master he had sent him to labour in the field; whether it was that he thought him incapable of any better employment, or only to move so disagreeable an object out of his sight. He was afterwards sold to a philosopher named Xanthus. I should never have done, should I relate all the strokes of wit, the sprightly repartees, and the arch and humorous circumstances of his words and behaviour. One day his master, designing to treat some of his friends, ordered Æsop to provide the best of every thing he could find in the market. Esop bought nothing but tongues, which he desired the cook to serve up with different sauces. When dinner came, the first and second courses, the side dishes, and the removes, were tongues. Did I not order you, says Xanthus in a violent passion, to buy the best victuals the market afforded? And have I not obeyed your orders' says Esop. Is there any thing better than a tongue? Is not the tongue the bond of civil society, the key of sciences, and the origin of truth and reason? By means of the tongue cities are built, and governments established and administered with that men instruct, persuade, and preside in assemblies: it is the instrument by which we acquit ourselves of the chief of all our duties, the praising and adoring the gods. Well then, replied Xanthus, thinking to catch him, go to market again to-morrow, and buy me the worst of every thing: the same company will dine with me, and I have a mind to diversify my entertainment. Esop the next day provided nothing but the very same dishes; telling his master that the tongue was the worst thing in the world. It is, says he, the instrument of all strife and contention, the fomenter of law-suits, and the source of divisions and wars; it is the organ of error, of lies, calumny, and blasphemy. : But the Æsop found it very difficult to obtain his liberty. One of the very first uses he made of it was to go to Croesus, who, on account of his great reputation and fame, had been long desirous to see him. The strange deformity of Esop's person shocked the king at first, and much abated the good opinion he had conceived of him. beauty of his mind soon shone forth through the coarse veil that covered it; and Croesus found, as Esop said on another occasion, that we ought not consider the form of the vessel, but the quality of the liquor it contains. He made several voyages into Greece, either for pleasure, or upon the affairs of Croesus. Being at Athens a short time after *Phædr. I. i. fab. 2. Pisistratus had usurped the sovereignty and abolished the popular government, and observing the Athenians bore this new yoke with great impatience, he repeated to them the fable of the frogs who demanded a king from Jupiter. It is doubted whether the fables of Æsop, such as we have them, are all his, at least in regard to the expression. Great part of them are ascribed to Planudes, who wrote his life, and lived in the four teenth century. Æsop is reckoned the author and inventor of this simple and na tural manner of conveying instruction by tales and fables; in whic' light Phædrus speaks of him: Esopus auctor quam materiam reperit, But the glory of this invention is really due to the poet Hesiod;" an invention which does not seem to be of any great importance, or extraordinary merit, and yet has been much esteemed and made use of by the greatest philosophers and ablest politicians. Plato tells us, that Socrates, a little before he died, turned some of Esop's fables into verse; and Plato himself earnestly recommends it to nurses to instruct their children in it betimes, in order to form their manners, and to inspire them early with the love of wisdom. Fables could never have been so universally adopted by all nations, as we see they have, if there was not a vast fund of useful truths contained in them, and agreeably conceived under that plain and negligent disguise, in which their peculiar character consists. The Creator certainly designing to instruct mankind, by the very prospect of nature, has endowed the brute part of it with various instincts, inclinations, and properties, to serve as so many pictures in miniature to man, of the several duties incumbent upon him; and to point out to him the good or evil qualities he ought to acquire or avoid. Thus has he given us, for instance, a lively image of meekness and innocence in the lamb; of fidelity and friendship in the dog; and on the contrary, of violence, rapaciousness, and cruelty, in the wolf, the lion, and the tiger; and so of the other species of animals; and all this he has designed, not only as instruction, but as a secret reproof to man if he should be indifferent about those qualities in himself, which he cannot forbear esteeming or detesting, even in the brutes themselves. This is a dumb language which all nations understand; it is a sentiment engraven in nature, which every man carries about with him. Æsop was the first of all the profane writers who laid hold *Illæ quoque fabulæ, quæ, etiamsi originem non ab Esopo acceperunt (nam videtur earum primus auctor Hesiodus,) nomine tamen Esopi maximè celebrantur, ducere animos solent, præcipuè rusticorum et imperitorum; qui et simpliciùs quæ ficta sunt audiunt, et capti voluptate facile iis quibus delectantur consentiunt. Quintil.l. v c, 12. Plat. in Phæd. p. 60. Lib. ii. de Rep. p. 378 of and unfolded it, made happy application of it, and attracted man's attention to this sort of simple and natural instruction, which is within the reach of all capacities, and equally adapted to persons of all ages and conditions. He was the first that, in order to give body and substance to virtues, vices, duties, and maxims of society, did, by an ingenious artifice and innocent fiction, invent the method of clothing them with graceful and familiar images borrowed from nature, by giving language to brute beasts, and ascribing sense and reason to plants and trees, and all sorts of inanimate creatures. The fables of Esop are void of all ornament; but abound with good sense, and are adapted to the capacity of children, for whom they are more particularly composed. Those of Phædrus are in a style somewhat, more elevated and diffused, but at the same time have a simplicity and elegance, that very much resemble the Attic spirit and style in the plain way of writing, which was the finest and most delicate kind of composition in use among the Grecians. Monsieur de la Fontaine, who was very sensible that the French tongue is not susceptible of the same elegant simplicity, has enlivened his fables with a sprightly and original turn of thought and expression, peculiar to himself, which no other person has yet been able to imitate. It is not easy to conceive,* why Seneca asserts as a fact, that the Romans in his time had never tried their pens in this kind of composition. Were the fables of Phædrus unknown to him? Plutarch relates the manner of Æsop's death. He went to Delphi, with a great quantity of gold and silver, to offer, in the name of Croesus, a great sacrifice to Apollo, and to give each inhabitant a considerable sum. A quarrel, which arose between him and the people of Delphi, occasioned him, after the sacrifice, to send back the money to Cræsus, and to inform him, that those for whom it was intended had rendered themselves unworthy of his bounty The inhabitants of Delphi caused him to be condemned as guilty of sacrilege, and to be thrown down from the top of a rock. The god, offended by this action, punished them with a plague and famine; so that to put an end to these evils, they caused it to be signified in all the assemblies of Greece, that if any one, for the honour of Esop, would come and claim vengeance for his death, they would give him satisfaction. At the third generation, a man from Samos presented himself, who had no other relation to Æsop than being descended from the person who had bought that fabulist. The Delphians made this man satisfaction, and thereby delivered themselves from the pestilence and famine that distressed them. * Non audeo te usque eò producere, ut fabellas quoque et ROMANIS INGENIIS OPUS, solitâ tibi venustate connectas. c. 27. De sera Numinis vindictâ. p. 556, 557. Four minæ, equal to 240 livres, about 81. 10. Æsopeos logos INTENTATUM |