Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/428

416 and enforcing the duty of gratitude, by feigning instances of the gratitude of beasts towards men. And of this the present compilation, which is strongly tinctured with orientalism, affords several other proofs."—.

"Warton is clearly correct in his idea of the oriental origin of this apologue. It also occurs in Æsop's fables, but he has not noticed this.

"This circumstance of the Bell of Justice occurs in the real history of some eastern monarch, whose name I have forgot.

"In the Arabian philosophy, serpents, either from the brightness of their eyes, or because they inhabit the cavities of the earth, were considered as having a natural, or occult, connection with precious stones. In Alphonsus's, a snake is mentioned, whose eyes were real jacinths. In Alexander's romantic history, he is said to have found serpents in the vale of Jordian, with collars of huge emeralds growing on their necks. The toad, under a vulgar indiscriminating idea, is ranked with the reptile race: and Shakspeare has a beautiful comparison on the traditionary notion, that the toad