Transcriber’s Note:
Cover created by Transcriber, using content of theoriginal book, and placed in the Public Domain.
Newcastle 1st. October 1818
To Thomas Bewick & Son Dr.,
To an Impl. Copy of Esop’s Fables 1£ 11s 6d
Received the above with thanks
Thomas Bewick Robert Elliot Bewick
Thomas Bewick
his Mark
THE
FABLES OF ÆSOP,
AND OTHERS,
WITH DESIGNS ON WOOD,
BY
THOMAS BEWICK.
“The wisest of the Ancients delivered their Conceptions of the Deity, and
their Lessons of Morality, in Fables and Parables.”
NEWCASTLE:
PRINTED BY E. WALKER, FOR T. BEWICK AND SON.
SOLD BY THEM, LONGMAN AND CO. LONDON,
AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.
1818.
iii
Good Men Grieve
Knaves invent
and Fools believe.
THE PREFACE DEDICATORY.
To the Youth of the British Isles.
In collecting together, for your use and benefit, someof the prudential maxims, and moral apothegms, of theancient sages, the Publishers of this volume have beenstimulated by an ardent desire to render this excellentmode of instruction as agreeable as possible; and, atthe same time, to impress the precepts contained in theFables more forcibly on your minds, they have endeavouredto make the embellishments worthy of your noticeand examination.
If the seeds of morality and patriotism be earlysown, they will spring up, and ripen to maturity, ina confirmed love of truth, integrity and honour; andwithout these for his guide, no man can do credit tohimself or his country. This consideration is of vitalivimportance; for our comfort and happiness throughlife, mainly depend upon a strict adherence to the rulesof morality and religion. The youth who is early tutoredin an invincible regard for his own character, willsoon perceive the duties imposed upon him by society,and will have pleasure in fulfilling them, as much forhis own satisfaction as for the sake of his fellow men:but when the latent powers of the mind are neglected,or not directed into the paths of r