From earliest times animals have been employed as symbolic figures by teachers and preachers, and the interest of the present day in animal life and lore is evidence of the never-failing pleasure humanity finds in beast books. Æsop's "Fables," "The Little Flowers of Saint Francis," "Reynard the Fox," and "The Jungle Stories" illustrate various sides of the literature about the lesser folk. The mediæval bestiary was a book which sought to enunciate religious instruction by an appeal to the curiosity of credulous people. The didactic interest far exceeded the scientific in these allegories which, to us, are most diverting matter. The source of the bestiary is to be found in the Greek "Physiologus" (second century A.D.), which was translated into Latin by Theobaldus in the late Middle Ages, and then into other languages. In Old English literature "The Whale" and "The Panther" and a fragment of "The Partridge" are all that remain of the version in that language. The Middle English bestiary of the thirteenth century contains descriptions, followed by explication, of the lion, the eagle, the adder, the ant, the hart, the fox, the spider, the whale, the siren, the elephant, the turtle dove, the panther, and the culver. There is a French bestiary written in England by Philippe de Thaün, about 1120, which contains a portion of a lapidary also. A translation is in T. Wright's "Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages." London, 1841. The text of the Middle English bestiary may be found in MORRIS, R. An Old English Miscellany. Early English Text Society, No. 49. MAETZNER, E. Altenglische Sprachproben, I, 55. Berlin, 1867. WRIGHT, T., and HALLIWELL, J. O. Reliquiae Antiquae, I, 208. London, 1845. Suggestive studies on the subject are KITTREDGE, G. L. Beast Fables, in Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia. LAND, J. P. N. Physiologos, in Encyclopædia Britannica. LAUCHERT, F. Geschichte des Physiologus. Strassburg, 1889. In the popular mediæval epic, "Reynard the Fox," animals, very realistically portrayed, yet with satirical symbolism, are the actors in a story full of interest to the modern reader. This is accessible in the following English versions: CAXTON, W. Reynard the Fox. Percy Society, Vol. XII. London. MORLEY, H. Early English Prose Romances. E. P. Dutton and Company, New York, 1912. JACOBS, J. The Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox. Macmillan and Company, London, 1895. LAPIDARY Selections from Lapidaries