POTTED WISDOM

Evening Star, Issue 19710, 10 November 1927, Page 12

POTTED WISDOM

/EBOP, THE SLAVE, AND HiS FAMOUS FABLES It is very doubtful if there ever was any such person as /Esop. He is not much more than a legendary figure, to whose name the folk-fables of the East became attached for no very obvious reason. We attribute our standard icsts to Joe Miller and of Joe know little; so . the Greeks credited this /Esop with their standard fragments of wisdom. . Lack of authentic information about /Esop'did not, however, deter a bright spark of the seventeenth century, Sir Roger L’Estrange, from translating the fables in the Greek collection and writing as a sort of preface a very racy account of_ tho life of their reputed author. Sir Roger was a Royalist, and ■ under Charles 11. became Licenser of the Press. His /Esop (seo the edition in Blackio’s English Texts, TOtl) was published in 1692. It is a delightful work. Tho racy English oi it accords perfectly with the colloquial style of the Fables. As thus:— “As a Dog was crossing a river, with a morsel of good flesh in his mouth, lio saw (as ho thought) another dog under the water, upon tlio very same adventure. He never considered that the one was only the imago of the other; but out of a greediness to get both, ho chops at the shadow and loses the substance.” It is as terse as the Latin translation of Hiaidrus wo know so well in school. , THE UGLY SLAVE. But Sir Roger’s 1 Life ’ of /Esop is in itself a delightful thing in the best manner of' tlio Restoration: — “ /Esop was by birth of Greater Phrygia (though some will have him to bo a Thracian, others a Samian), of a mean condition, and in his person deformed to the highest degree; flatnosed, hunch-backed, blobber-lipped; a long misshapen headhis body crooked all over, big-bellied, bakerlegged, and his complexion so swarthy, that bo took bis very name frora’t; for .Esop is the same with /Etlnop. And ho was not only unhappy in tho most scandalous figure of a man, that iias ever heard of, but he was in a. manner tongue-tied, too, by such an impediment in hit> ypccch that people could very hardly understand what ho said. This imperfection is said to have been tho most sensible part of his misfortune, for the excellency of his mind might otherwise have atoned in s me measure for the uncouth appearance of Ids person (at least if that part of his history may pass for current). ' Tims' it starts with admirable directness- We are told bow., by his wit and wisdom, /Esop attracted rnc attention of a philosopher Xanthus, and by Xanthus was bought as a slave. (The period is, roughly, 550 me., when Crocsu s ruled as King of Lydia.) How /Esop kept proving to Xanthus the wisdom of his purchase makes a charming scries of anecdotes. A PHILOSOPHER IN DIFFICULTIES. One dav, wo are told, Xanthus went with /Esop to buy herbs from a gardener, who, “ seeing him in the habit of a philosopher,” asked him to explain why it was that weeds shoot up more quickly tlum plants .sot by tho husbandman. Tlio question floored Xanthus, and all ho could suggest was “that Providence would have it so. Whereupon /Esop “ l,raliC oll(: ' llto a loud laughter.” Naturally it was galling for tho philosopher to lie laughed at by his slave, and tartly ho asked /Esop if he eould do hotter. Certainly, said AO sop in effect; and lie took Xanthus aside, begging to bo allowed to deal with tlio_ inquisitive grower of herbs. Permission granted. “Xanthus told the gardener that it was below a philosopher to busy his head about such trifles; but, says be, if you have a curiosity to bo better informed, you should do well to ask my slave here and see what he’ll say to you. Upon this the gardener put the question to /Eso_p, who gave him tliis answer. The earen is in the nature of a mother to what she brings forth of herself out of her own bowels; whereas she is only a kind of a stepdam® m the production of plants that are cultivated and assisted by the help ami industry of another; so that it’s natural for her to withdraw her nourishment from the one towards the relief of tho other. Tho _ gardener, upon tin’s, was so well satisfied that he would take no money for his herbs, and desired /Esop to make use of his garden for the future as if it were his own.” _ . So runs a typical incident. PROFESSIONAL JEALOUSY.

According to Sir llogor’s talc, /hsop so consistently proved himself helpful to the rather thick-witted philosopher that he was in due course given his freedom. By that time, however, the lame of VlSsop had spread. He was in demand everywhere as a soothsayer. Creesus himself took notice of him, and thd oracles at Delphi received him. But professional jealousy was too pinch for them. /Esop taunted them in fable, and they determined on revenge. “When rEsop found that neither the holiness of the place nor the clearness of his innocence was sufficient to protect him, and that ho _ was to fall a sacrifice to subordination and power, he gave them yet one fable more as ho was upon the way to execution. . . . He was speaking on, but

they pushed him off headlong from tlie rock, and ho was dashed to pieces with the fall.” A sad end for a man so wise, but there is no doubt that Ids wit and wisdom, as reported by Sir Huger L’Estrangc, must have been rather trying. He was such a superior person that wo feel sure he _ never existed. —‘John o’ London’s Weekly.’