Aesop's Fables; a new translation

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aesop's Fables, by AesopThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.netTitle: Aesop's FablesAuthor: AesopRelease Date: February 27, 2004 [EBook #11339]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AESOP'S FABLES ***Produced by Suzanne Shell, Greg Chapman and the Online DistributedProofreading Team.�SOP'S FABLESA NEW TRANSLATIONBY V. S. VERNON JONESWITH AN INTRODUCTIONBY G. K. CHESTERTONAND ILLUSTRATIONSBY ARTHUR RACKHAM1912 EDITIONINTRODUCTION_�sop embodies an epigram not uncommon in human history; his fameis all the more deserved because he never deserved it. The firmfoundations of common sense, the shrewd shots at uncommon sense, thatcharacterise all the Fables, belong not him but to humanity. Inthe earliest human history whatever is authentic is universal: andwhatever is universal is anonymous. In such cases there is alwayssome central man who had first the trouble of collecting them, andafterwards the fame of creating them. He had the fame; and, on thewhole, he earned the fame. There must have been something great andhuman, something of the human future and the human past, in such aman: even if he only used it to rob the past or deceive the future.The story of ...