Page:The Hind and Panther transvers'd to the story of the country mouse and the city mouse (1709).djvu/10

 ''and contradictory to the Rules and Examples of all Fables, and to the very Design and Use of them? They were first begun and raised to the highest Perfection in the Eastern Countries; where they wrote in Signs and spoke in Parables, and delivered the most useful Precepts in delightful Stories; which for their Aptness were entertaining to the most Judicious, and led the vulgar into Understanding by surprizing them with their Novelty, and fixing their Attention. All their Fables carry a double meaning; the Story is one and intire; the Characters the same throughout, not broken or chang'd, and always conformable to the Nature of the Creatures they introduce. They never tell you that the Dog which snapt at a Shadow, lost his Troop of Horse, that would be unintelligible; a piece of Flesh is proper for him to drop, and the Reader will apply it to Mankind; they would not say that the Daw who was so proud of her borrow'd Plumes lookt very ridiculous when Rodriguez came and took away all the Book but the 17th, 24th, and 25th Chapters, which she stole from him: But this is his new way of telling a Story, and confounding the Moral and the Fable together.''