The Fables of La Fontaine | Page 6

of the
Latin; and the rhetorician Aphthonius wrote forty 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.
The apologues of the Greeks and Romans were brief, pithy, and
epigrammatic, and their collections were without any principle of
connection. But, at the same time, though probably unknown to them,
the same species of literature was flourishing elsewhere under a
somewhat different form. It is made a question, whether Aesop,
through the Assyrians, with whom the Phrygians had commercial
relations, did not either borrow his art from the Orientals, or lend it to
them. This disputed subject must be left to those who have a taste for
such inquiries. Certain it is, however, that fable flourished very
anciently with the people whose faith embraces the doctrine of
metempsychosis. Among the Hindoos, there are two very ancient
collections of fables, which differ from those which we have already
mentioned, in having a principle of connection throughout. They are, in

fact, extended romances, or dramas, in which all sorts of creatures are
introduced as actors, and in which there is a development of sentiment
and passion as well as of moral truth, the whole being wrought into a
system of morals particularly adapted to the use of those called to
govern. One of these works is called the Pantcha Tantra, which
signifies "Five Books," or Pentateuch. It is written in prose. The other
is called the Hitopadesa, or "Friendly Instruction," and is written in
verse. Both are in the ancient Sanscrit language, and bear the name of a
Brahmin, Vishnoo Sarmah,[1] as the author. Sir William Jones, who is
inclined to make this author the true Aesop of the world, and to doubt
the existence of the Phrygian, gives him the preference to all other
fabulists, both in regard to matter and manner. He has left a prose
translation of the Hitopadesa, which, though it may not fully sustain his
enthusiastic preference, shows it not to be entirely groundless. We give
a sample of it, and select a fable which La Fontaine has served up as
the twenty-seventh of his eighth book. It should be understood that the
fable, with the moral reflections which accompany it, is taken from the
speech of one animal to another.
[1] Vishnoo Sarmah.--Sir William Jones has the name
Vishnu-sarman. He says, further, that the word
Hitopadesa_ comes
from _hita, signifying fortune,
prosperity, utility, and upadesa,
signifying advice,
the entire word meaning "salutary or amicable

instruction."--Ed.
"Frugality should ever be practised, but not excessive parsimony; for
see how a miser was killed by a bow drawn by himself!"
"How was that?" said Hiranyaca.
"In the country of Calyanacataca," said Menthara, "lived a mighty
hunter, named Bhairaza, or Terrible. One day he went, in search of
game, into a forest on the mountains Vindhya; when, having slain a
fawn, and taken it up, he perceived a boar of tremendous size; he
therefore threw the fawn on the ground, and wounded the boar with an
arrow; the beast, horribly roaring, rushed upon him, and wounded him

desperately, so that he fell, like a tree stricken with an axe.

"In the meanwhile, a jackal, named Lougery, was roving in search of
food; and, having perceived the fawn, the hunter, and the boar, all three
dead, he said to himself, 'What a noble provision is here made for me!'
"As the pains of men assail them unexpectedly, so their pleasures come
in the same manner; a divine power strongly operates in both.
"'Be it so; the flesh of these three animals will sustain me a whole
month, or longer.
"'A man suffices for one month; a fawn and a boar, for two; a snake, for
a whole day; and then I will devour the bowstring.' When the first
impulse of his hunger was allayed, he said, 'This flesh is not yet tender;
let me taste the twisted string with which the horns of this bow are
joined.' So saying, he began to gnaw it; but, in the instant when he had
cut the string, the severed bow leaped forcibly up, and wounded him in
the breast, so that he departed in the agonies of death. This I meant,
when I cited the verse, Frugality should ever be practised, &c.

"What thou givest to distinguished men, and what thou eatest every
day--that, in my opinion, is thine own wealth: whose is the remainder
which thou hoardest?"
Works of Sir William Jones, vol. vi. pp. 35-37.[2]
[2] Edition 1799, 6 vols., 4to.--Ed.
It was one of these books which Chosroës, the king of Persia, caused to
be translated from the Sanscrit into the ancient language of his