tale, or feigned narration, designed either to instruct or divert, disguised under the allegory of an action, &c.

Fables were the first pieces of wit that made their appearance in the world; and have continued to be highly valued, not only in times of the greatest simplicity, but in the most polite ages of the world. Jonathan's fable of the trees is the oldest that is extant, and as beautiful as any that have been made since. Nathan's fable of the poor man is next in antiquity. We find Aesop in the most distant ages of Greece; and in the early days of the Roman commonwealth, we read of a mutiny appeased by the fable of the belly and the members. As fables had their rise in the very infancy of learning, they never flourished more than when learning was at its greatest height; witness Horace, Boileau, and Fontaine.

Fable is the finest way of giving counsel, and most universally pleasing, because least shocking; for, in the reading of a fable, a man thinks he is directing himself, whilst he is following the dictates of another, and consequently is not sensible of that which is the most unpleasing circumstance in advice. Besides, the mind is never so much pleased as when she exerts herself in any action that gives her an idea of her own abilities; this natural pride of the soul is very much gratified in the reading of fable.

Fable, is also used for the plot of an epic or dramatic poem; and is, according to Aristotle, the principal part, and, as it were, the soul of the poem. See Poetry.