ABSTRACT

Among the fictions which have been intended for moral purposes, I think those which are distinguished by the name of Fables, deserve a particular consideration.

A story or tale, in which many different characters are conducted through a great variety of events, may include such a number and diversity of precepts, as, taken together, form almost a complete rule of life: as these events mutually depend upon each other, they will be retained in a series; and, therefore, the remembrance of one precept will almost necessarily produce the remembrance of another, and the whole moral, as it is called, however complicated, will be recollected without labour and without confusion.