E-text prepared by Al Haines
A Book of Fable Wisdom
Illustrations by Harold Nelson
1922
"Accept, young Prince, the moral lay
And in these tales mankind survey;
With early virtues plant your breast
The specious arts of vice detest."
I. Fables of Aesop. (Greek)
II. Fables of Bidpai. (Indian)
III. Fables from the Hitopadesa. (Sanskrit)
IV. Fables from P. V. Ramaswami Raju. (Indian)
V. Malayan Fables
VI. Moorish Fables
VII. African Fables
VIII. Fables from Krilof. (Russian)
IX. Fables from the Chinese
X. Fables of La Fontaine. (French)
XI. Fables from the Spanish of Carlos Yriarte
XII. Fables of Gay, Cowper, and others. (English)
For Eastern princes, long ago,
These fables, grave and gay,
Were written as a friendly guide
On life's perplexing way.
When Rumour came to court and news
Of such a book was heard,
The monarch languished till he might
Secure the Golden Word.
Prince of To-day, this little hook
A store-house is of treasure.
Unlock it and where'er you look
Is wisdom without measure.
'Twill teach thee of the meed of greed,
Of sowing versus reaping,
Of that mad haste that makes for waste,
And looking before leaping.
'Twill teach thee what is like to hap
To self-conceit and folly;
And show that who begins in sin
Will end in melancholy.
So take the book and learn of beast
And animate creation
The lesson that the least may teach,
However mean his station.
"Among all the different ways of giving counsel I thinkthe finest and that which pleases the most universally isfable, in whatever shape it appears."
How shall I bring to your mind the time anddistance that separate us from the Age ofFable? Think of what seemed to you thelongest week of your life. Think of fifty-two ofthese in a year; then think of two thousand fivehundred years and try to realize that Aesop—sometimescalled the Eighth Wise Man—livedtwenty-five centuries ago and made these wonderfultales that delight us to-day.
Shakespeare is even yet something of a mystery,although he was born in our own era, less thanfive hundred years ago; but men are still tryingto discover any new facts of his life that mightbetter explain his genius. A greater mysteryis grand old Homer, who has puzzled the worldfor centuries. Scholars are not certain whetherthe "Iliad" or "Odyssey" are the work of oneor more than one mind. Who can say? for thethrilling tales were told—probably after thefashion of all the minstrels of his day—more thaneight hundred years before Christ.
On the background of that dim distant long ago,perhaps two hundred years later than