Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Fables of La Fontaine: Translated From the French
The collection of fables in Greek verse by brias was exceedingly popular among the Romans. It was the favorite book of the Emperor Julian. Only six of these fables, and a few fragments, remain, but they are sufficient to show that their author possessed. All that. Graces of style which befit the apologue. Some cruise place him in the Augustan age; others make him eon temporary with Moschus. His work wasversified1ini Latin, at the instance of Seneca; and 'quinctilian, refers to it as a reading-book. For boys. Thus, at all times, these playful fictions have been considered fit lessons for children, as well as for men, who are often butgrown-up children. So popular were the fables, of Babrias and their Latin translation, during the Roman empire that the work of We was hardly noticed. The atter> was a freedman of Augustus, and wrote in the reign of Tiberius. {his verse stands almost unrivalled for its exquisite elegance and compactness; and posterity has abundantly avenged him for the neglect of contempora ries.) 'la Fontaine is perhaps more indebted to Pluedrus than to any other of his predecessors; and, especially. In the first six books, his style has much of the same riens condensation. When.the seat of the empire was transferred to 'byzantium, the Greek language took pre cedence of the Latin; and' the rhetorician Aphtonius wrote fo'rty fables in Greek prose, which became popular. Besides these collections among the Romans, we find apologues 'scattered through'the writings of their best poets and historians; and embalmed in those specimens of their oratory which have come down to us. O'figiajryprinciple Ef'coimectionz But, at'the same, time.
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