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Fables," very justly observes our author, were the first pieces of wit that made their appearance in the world, and have been still highly valued, not only in times of the greatest simplicity, but among the most polite ages of mankind. Jotham's Fable of the Trees is the oldest that

*

any which have

is extant, and as beautiful as been made since that time +." After the fables of the Hebrew Scriptures, the oldest collection that we possess, and which, without doubt, gave birth to the Grecian Esop, is the Heetopades of Veeshnoo-Sarma. It is remarkable, that to these Indian fables of very remote antiquity many of the Arabian and Persian fabulists, though perhaps ignorant of the original source, are indebt ed, through the medium of successive versions and imitations, for no inconsiderable number of their tales; and of the apologues which Addison has selected, one of the most pleasing, the story of Alnaschar in the Arabian Nights, is to be found in the venerable volume of the Sanskreet Brahman.

"In the city of Devee-kotta," he relates, "there was a Brahman, whose name was DevaSarma. One lucky evening he found a curious dish, which he took with him into a potter's warehouse fall of earthen-ware, and throwing * Judges, ix. 8-15. + Spectator, No 183.

*

himself upon a bed which happened to be there, it being night, he began to express his thoughts upon the occasion in this manner :-If I dispose of this dish, I shall get ten kapardakas for it; and with that sum I may purchase many pots and pans, the sale of which will increase my capital so much that I shall be able to lay in a large stock of cloth and the like; which having disposed of at a great advance, I shall have accumulated a fortune of a lack † of money. With this I will marry four wives; and of these I will amuse myself with her, who may prove the handsomest. This will create jealousy; so when the rival wives shall be quarrelling, then will I, overwhelmed with anger, hurl my stick at them, thus! Saying which, he flung his walking stick out of his hand with such force, that he not only brake his curious dish, but destroyed many of the pots and pans in the shop; the master of which hearing the noise, came in, and discovering the cause, disgraced the Brahman, and turned him out of doors t."

The style which Addison has adopted in his oriental tales, and in his translation of the apologues, is precisely such as corresponds to the best ages of Arabian literature. Simplicity and *Ten cowries. + One hundred thousand rupees.

Wilkins's Heetopades of Veeshnoo Sarma, p. 247.

freedom from inflation we have seen, on the authority of Professor Carlyle, to have been characteristic of the literary productions of the most flourishing periods of the Khaliphat; "their best writers," he remarks," both of poetry and prose, expressed themselves in a language as chaste and simple as that of Prior or of Addison *." In this respect the example of Addison has not been sufficiently attended to, the oriental narratives of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Tales of the Genii, though rich in fancy, abounding too much with lofty epithet and tumid metaphor. The sweetness and simplicity of our author's diction, add, more than is usually imagined, to the effect and poignancy of these interesting fictions. The dialogue of the Barmecide, for instance, of Sultan Mahmoud and the Dervise, owes much of its archness and humour to the elegant plainness of the language employed; and in the Vision of Mirza no reader can be insensible to the ease, amenity, and grace of style which clothe and heighten the imagery of that exquisite composition.

Another department of fiction, in which Addison has exhibited great powers of fancy and invention, is the Allegorical. This, which is totally *Carlyle's Specimens of Arabian Poetry, Preface, p. 5.

independent of oriental imagery, he has conducted with most singular felicity; and to him may be justly ascribed the introduction into our literature of that species of it which is built upon the classic model. "I have revived," he observes," several antiquated ways of writing, which, though very instructive and entertaining, had been laid aside and forgotten for some ages. I shall, in this place, only mention those allegories wherein virtues, vices, and human passions are introduced as real actors. Though this kind of composition was practised by the finest authors among the ancients, our countryman Spenser is the last writer of note who has applied himself to it with success *."

Allegory, whether in poetry or prose, has in this country usually been constructed upon two models, the Grecian and the Gothic; the former occasionally exemplified in the writings of Homer and Eschylus, and more fully and frequently in the precepts of Socrates and Plato, of Xenophon and Cebes; the latter in the elaborate and protracted effusions of William de Lorris, Chaucer, and Spenser. Addison has, with much judgment, chosen for his guide the more correct and legitimate example of Plato and Cebes; and we * Guardian, No 152.

possess no allegories more happily conceived than those which, upon the plan of these authors, are dispersed through his periodical writings.

The opinion that he entertained of what was requisite toward the successful execution of this species of fable, he has himself given us in the Guardian. "That an allegory," he remarks, "may be both delightful and instructive, in the first place, the fable of it ought to be perfect, and, if possible, to be filled with surprising turns and incidents. In the next, there ought to be useful morals and reflections couched under it, which still receive a greater value from being new and uncommon; as also from their appearing difficult to have been thrown into emblematical types and shadows *."

These rules, to which he has faithfully adhered, have been productive of an excellence so consummate in this mode of composition, that we may, without hazard, consider the allegories of our author as nearly perfect models. Of these we possess twelve +; six in the Tatler, and six in the Spectator and Guardian. The first, however, which is on the Origin of Love, is merely

* Guardian, No 152.

+ The vision of Mirza I have already enumerated under the head of Oriental Apologues.

Tatler, N° 90.