Fabeln: Politisch-moralisches Panorama unserer Zeit
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Authors
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Issue Date
1819
Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
What a curious title! And what a time to look for political-moral wisdom! Here are 153 fables on 182 pages. Each new fable begins a new page in this small -- about 4 x 5 -- book. Its only illustration is the frontispiece of a sphinx looking into a mirror. Perhaps because that is the only illustration, this book is not in Bodemann. The introduction closes with this quatrain: Zu schmeicheln wagt der ärgste Feind, die Wahrheit sagt Euch nur der Freund. The first regular fable has sheep trying to tell the dog to be a watchdog and leave them alone. The dog answers You thankless creatures! You do not know how to help yourselves, so do not complain when someone else, whom nature calls thereto, thinks for you. A young mouse asks her mother why she is so negative about cats. You know only how cats look, my child, not what they are (4). A wolf to a goat on a steep stone wall: A fall from there could kill you. I cannot bear to see it; you make me anxious. The goat answers: I never tremble over heights; I tremble only over your being near (38). The last fable narrates an encounter between a fox and fable. The fox dismisses fable as inaccurately accusing animals of all sorts of crimes. Fable's answer is that she only uses the animals. Her concern is that men, despite their reason, are still sinners. Would I be wrong to see this fable as the Enlightenment encapsulated in a story? It is easier for me to see the moral than the political panorama here.
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Citation
Publisher
Gr. H. S. priv. Landes-Industrie-Comptoir