JE S O P. well as thofe which the earth produced without any cultiva- tion ? The philolopher afcribeci all to Providence, and con- tinued his walk : but /Efop, having flopped with the gar- dener, compared the earth to a woman, who always regards her own children more affectionately than thofe whom by a Second marriage {he may become a ftepmother to : the earth, iaid he, is the iiepmother to laboured and forced productions, but the real mother to her own natural produce. ./Efop was afterwards fold to Idmon, or ladnion, the philofopher, who cnfranchifed him. After he had recovered his liberty, he loon acquired a great reputation amonft the Greeks ; fo that, according to Meziriac, the report of his wifduui having reached Crccfus, this king fent to enquire after him, and en- gaged him in his fervice. He travelled through Greece, ac- cording to the fame author; whether for his own plcafure, or upon the affairs of Crcefus, is uncertain ; and paffing by Athens, foon after Pififlratus had ufurped the fovereign power, and finding that the Athenians bore the yoke very impatiently, he told them the fable of the frogs who peti- tioned Jupiter for a king. Some relate, that, in order to (hew that the life of man is full of miferics, JEfop ufed to ex fay, that when Prometheus took the clay to form man, he . tem p t . re <j j t w j tn tears. The images made ufe of by /Efop are certainly very happy inventions to inftrur mankind ; ?hey have all that is neceiTary to perfect a precept, being a mixture of the ufeful with the agreeable. " /Efop the faba-
- ' lift (fays Aulus Gelliiib) wasdefervedly efleemed wife, fince
- ' he did not, after the manner of the philofophcrs, rigidly
'* and imperioufly dictate fuch things as wete proper to be " advifed and perfuaded, but, framing entertaining and agree-
- able apologue-;, he thereby charms and captivates the hu-
" man mind [A]." Apolionius of Tyana, talking of the I'hiloftra'us fables of /Efop, greatly prefers them to thofe of the poets : in the Life they, he fays do but corrupt the ears of the hearers ; they re- niu? P hb.v~ P re ^ ent the infamous amours of the gods, their inceirs, quar- cap.^. rels, and a hundred other crimes. Thofe who find fuch things related by the poets as real fa6ts, learn to love vice, and are apt to believe they fin not in ^ratifying the mod irregu- lar appetites, feeing they do but imitate the gcds. /E/op, not contented with rejecting fables of this nature, in favour of [A] /Efopus ille e PhryK'a Tabulator vos deletabilefque apolrgos commentuj, haud immento fapifns exiftim;>uis eft; res falul riter acprofp:cientcr animadver- quumquas utiiia roon:tu fualaque erant, fas, in mentes animofque hominum cum non fcvere, now imtcriole p-aecepit et audiendi quadam illeccbra inducit. A. cenfuit, uc philoibjjhis mos tft, led fefti- Gellius, Nocles Attica.-, lib. ii. cap. 26, wiidom
