Though parables are not fables in the strict and limited meaning of the term, they bear a close family relationship to them. Parables may be defined as stories in allegorical dress. The Scriptures, both old and new, abound with them. The most beautiful example in the Old Testament is that of Nathan and the ewe lamb,[8] in which David the King is made his own accuser. This was a favourite mode of conveying instruction and reproof employed by our Lord. Christ often 'spake in parables'; and with what feelings of reverential awe must we regard the parables of the Gospels, coming as they did from the lips of our Saviour! FOOTNOTES: [1] 'Plato and Platonism,' by Walter Pater. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893, p. 225. [2] Aphthonius flourished at Antioch, at what time is uncertain. Forty of his Æsopian fables, with a Latin version by Kimedoncius, were printed from a MS. in the Palatine Library at the beginning of the seventeenth century. 'The Æsopian Fable,' by Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart. Edinburgh: Constable and Co., 1809. Preface, p. xxxi. [3] 'Even trees speak, not only wild beasts.'--Phædrus, Book i., Prologue. [4] 'Essay on Fable.' [5] 'Fables Original and Selected,' by G. Moir Bussey. London: Willoughby and Co., 1842. [6] 'The Fables of Æsop,' as first printed by William Caxton in 1484. London: David Nutt, 1889, vol. i., p. 204. [7] 'The Tatler,' No. 147, vol. iii., p. 205. [8] 2 Samuel xii. 1-7. CHAPTER II. CHARACTERISTICS OF FABLES. 'To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature.' SHAKESPEARE: _Hamlet_. There is an archness about the best fables that creates interest and awakens curiosity; and it is the quality of such that, whilst simple enough as stories to be understood and enjoyed by the young, they are at the same time calculated to interest, amuse, instruct and admonish those more advanced in years. A fable should carry its moral without the telling; nevertheless the application is often worth supplying, because it puts, or should put, the lesson taught by the fable in a terse and impressive form. Above and beyond all, a fable should possess the quality of simplicity, and whilst easy to be understood, it should have force and appropriateness.