ed to
sit at his window, clad in his beloved dressing
gown, an open book in his hand.

Around the monument (says his biographer) a
number of children are always at play, and the
poet seems to smile benignly on them from his
bronze easy chair. Perhaps the Grecian children
of long ago played about Aesop's statue in Athens,
for Lysippus the celebrated sculptor designed and
erected a monument in his memory.

Read Krilof's "Education of a Lion" and
"The Lion and the Mosquitoes" while his life is
fresh in your mind. Then turn to "What
Employment our Lord Gave to Insects" and "How
Sense was Distributed," in the quaint African
fables. Glance at "The Long-tailed
Spectacled Monkey" and "The Tune that Made the
Tiger Drowsy," so full of the very atmosphere of
India. Then re-read some old favourite of
Aesop and imagine you are hearing his voice, or
that of some Greek story-teller of his day, ringing
down through more than two thousand years
of time.

There is a deal of preaching in all these fables,--that
cannot be denied,--but it is concealed as
well as possible. It is so disagreeable for people
to listen while their faults and follies, their foibles
and failings, are enumerated, that the fable-maker
told his truths in story form and thereby
increased his audience. Preaching from the mouths
of animals is not nearly so trying as when it
comes from the pulpit, or from the lips of your
own family and friends!

Whether or not our Grecian and Indian, African
and Russian fable-makers have not saddled the
animals with a few more faults than they possess--just
to bolster up our pride in human nature--I
sometimes wonder; but the result has been beneficial.
The human rascals and rogues see themselves
clearly reflected in the doings of the jackals,
foxes, and wolves and may get some little distaste
for lying, deceit and trickery.

We make few fables now-a-days. We might
say that it is a lost art, but perhaps the world is too
old to be taught in that precise way, and though
the story writers are as busy as ever, the
story-tellers (alas!) are growing fewer and fewer.

If your ear has been opened by faery tales you
will have learned already to listen to and interpret
a hundred voices unheard by others. A
comprehension of faery language leads one to
understand animal conversation with perfect ease, so
open the little green doors that lead into the forest,
the true Land of Fable. Open them softly and
you will hear