OF ÆSOP And other Eminent MYTHOLOGISTS: WITH Morals and Reflections. By Sir Roger L'Eftrange Kt. The Eighth Edition Cozređed. LONDON: Printed for A. BETTESWORTH, C. HITCH, M.DCC.XXXVIII. 1737 THE PREFACE. WE E have had the Hiftory of fop fo many times over and over, and dress'd up fo many feveral Ways, that it would be but labour loft to multiply unprofitable Conjectures upon a Tradition of fo great Uncertainty. Writers are divided about him, almost to all manner of Purposes; and particularly concerning the Authority even of the greater part of thofe Compofitions that pass the World in his Name: For the Story is come down to us fo dark and doubtful, that it is impoffible to diftinguish the Original from the Copy; and to say which of the Fables are fop's, and which not; which are genuine, and which are fpurious; befide, that there are divers Inconfiftences upon the Point of Chronology, in the Account of bis Life (as Maximus Planudes and others have deliver'd it) which the chole Earth can never reconcile. Vavafor the Jefuit in a Tract of bis, de Ludicra Dictione, takes notice of fome four or five grofs Mistakes of this kind. [Planudes Jays be) brings jop to Babylon in the Reign of Lycerus, where there never was fuch a Prince heard of, from Nabonafor (the first King of Babylon) to Alexander the Great. He tells us of his going into Egypt in the Days of King Nectenabo; which Nettenabo came not into the World till well nigh two hundred Years after him. And fo he makes him greet his Mistress upon his firft Entrance into his Mafter's House, with a bitter Sentence against Women out of Euripides (as he pretends) when yet Æfop had been dead a matter of fourfcore Years before t'other was born. And once again, he brings him in talking of the Pyrean Port, in his Fable of the Ape and the Dolphin; a Port that the very Name on't was never thought of till about the feventy-fixth Olympiad, and fop was mur A 2 der'd der'd in the four and fiftieth.] This is enough in all feience to excufe any Man from laying over-much stress upon the biftorical Credit of a Relation that comes fa blindly and fo variously tranfmitted to us; over and above, that it is not one fot to our Bufinefs (further than to gratify an idle Curiofity) whether the Fact be true or falfe; whether the Man was strait or crooked; and bis Name Efop, or (as fome will have) Lochman: In all which Cafes the Reader is left at liberty to believe his Pleasure. We are not here upon the Name, the Perfon, or the Adventures of this great Man; but upon the Subject of his Apologues and Morals; and not of his alone, but of feveral other eminent Men that have written after his Copy, and abundantly contributed in thofe Labours to the Delight, Benefit, and Inftruction of thofe that were to come after them. There are, 'tis true, a certain Set of morofe and untratable Spirits in the World, that look upon Precepts in Emblem, as they do upon Gays and Pictures that are only fit for Women and Children, and look upon them to be no better than the Fooleries of fo many Old Wives Tales. Theft are a fort of People that are refolv'd to be pleas'd with nothing that is not unfociably four, ill-natur'd, and troublefom; Men that make it the Mark, as well as the Prerogative of a Philofopher to be magifterial and churlish; as if a Man could not be wife and honest, without being inhuman, or, I might have faid, without putting an Affront upon Chriftian Charity, Civil Society, Decency and good Manners. But they are not aware all this while, that the Foundations of Knowledge and Virtue are laid in our Childhood; when nothing goes kindly down with us that is not feafon'd and adapted to the Palate and Capacity of thofe tender Years. 'Tis in the very Nature of us, first, to be inquifitive and hankering after News and new Sights and Stories: So that betwixt the indulging and cultivating of this Difpofition or Inclination on the one Hand, and the applying of a profitable Moral to the Figure, or the Fable, on the other, here's the Sum of all that can be don on the point of a timely Difcipline and Inftitution, to warl |