In the royal galleries kings look at pictures of their great ancestors, and somewhat realize remote the past. Many of the ancestors of the short story still live. They drank of the fountain of youth, and are as strong and full of life as ever. Such immortal ancestors of the short story of to-day are _The Story of Polyphemus_ (ninth century, B.C.), _The Story of Pandora and her Box_ (ninth century, B.C.), _The Book of Esther_ (second century, B.C.), _The City Mouse and the Country Mouse_ (first century, B.C.), and _The Fables of Æsop_ (third century, A. D.). There are still existing many Egyptian short stories, some of which are of the most remote antiquity, the _Tales of the Magicians_ going back to 4000 B.C. All the stories just named,—and many others equally familiar, drawn from every ancient land,—affected the short story in English. In the earliest days in England, in the fifth and in a few succeeding centuries, the priests made collections of short stories from which they could select illustrative material for the instruction of their hearers. They drew many such stories from Latin, which, in turn, had drawn them from still more ancient sources. Then, or a little later, came folk stories, romantic stories of adventure, and other stories for mere amusement. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Italians became very skilful in telling short stories, or “novelle.” Their “new” tales had a lasting effect on short story telling in English. Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_, in the fourteenth century, although in verse, told in a most delightfully realistic way all kinds of stories from all kinds of sources, particularly from the literatures of Italy and of France. Chaucer told his stories so remarkably well, with such humor and reality, that he is one of the great forces in the history of the short story in English. In the sixteenth century stories from France, Spain, and other lands, also gave new incentives to the development of the short story in English. In the eighteenth century Addison’s _Spectator_ published very short realistic narratives that often presented closely drawn character studies. These are hardly to be called short stories, but they influenced the short story form. About the beginning of the nineteenth century, partly because of German influence, it became the fashion to write stories of mystery and horror, such as many of those by Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. Irving softened such stories by the touch of realistic humor; Hawthorne gave them artistic form and nobility; Poe developed the full value of the short story as a literary type, and pointed out the five principles named above. The genius of these men led the way to the modern short story.