'Application: Although the trooper's good luck with his bit of armour may appear to be the effect of chance, yet certain it is that prudent persons are always prepared to receive good fortune, or may be said to meet it half-way, turning every accident if possible to good, which gives an appearance as if they were the favourites of fortune; whilst the thoughtless and improvident, on the contrary, often neglect to embrace the very blessings which chance throws in their way, and then survey with envy those who prosper by their careful and judicious conduct, and blame their partial or hard fortune for all those privations and sufferings which their mismanagement alone has brought upon themselves.' FOOTNOTES: [60] It has been suggested, that Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith were the 'authors,' and Goldsmith the 'learned friend.' See the preface by Edwin Pearson to the 1871 edition, of Bewick's 'Select Fables of Æsop.' [61] Northcote's grammar is at fault here. CHAPTER XIV. MODERN FABULISTS: LESSING, YRIARTE, KRILOF. 'Great thoughts, great feelings, come to them Like instincts, unawares.' R. M. MILNES. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, born January 22, 1729, at Kamenz, died February 15, 1781, aged fifty-two years, was a distinguished German scholar, poet and dramatist. As a fabulist, Lessing is noted for epigrammatic point rather than humour, though he is by no means lacking in the latter characteristic. He is perhaps the most original writer of fables amongst the moderns. Sagacious, wise, witty, his apologues (1759) have nothing superfluous about them. They are nearly all brief, pithy, and very much to the point. In these respects they follow the Æsopian model more than those of any other modern writer. The following are good examples of his style: '_Æsop and the Ass._--"The next time you write a fable about me," said the donkey to Æsop, "make me say something wise and sensible." '"Something sensible from you!" exclaimed Æsop; "what would the world think? People would call you the sage, and me the donkey!" '_The Shepherd and the Nightingale._--"Sing to me, dearest nightingale," said a shepherd to the silent songstress one beautiful spring evening. '"Alas!" said the nightingale, "the frogs make so much noise that I have no inclination to sing. Do you not hear them?" '"Undoubtedly I hear them," replied the shepherd, "but it is owing to your silence." '_Solomon's Ghost._--A venerable old man, despite his years and the heat of the day, was ploughing his field with his own hand, and sowing the grain in the willing earth, in anticipation of the harvest it would produce. 'Suddenly, beneath the deep shadow of a spreading oak, a divine apparition stood before him! The old man was seized with affright. '"I am Solomon," said the phantom encouragingly, "what dost thou here, old friend?"