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    Fables and Parables: From the German of Lessing, Herder, Gellert, Miessner &C, &C
    Fables and Parables: From the German of Lessing, Herder, Gellert, Miessner &C, &C
    Fables and Parables: From the German of Lessing, Herder, Gellert, Miessner &C, &C
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    Fables and Parables: From the German of Lessing, Herder, Gellert, Miessner &C, &C

    By Lessing

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    This edition of the Fables and Parables has been reset from the original book from 1846 which was published by James Burns in London.The original spelling and grammar have been intentionally retained in order for the reader to get a feel for the culture of the time. As mentioned in the original introduction above, these fables were originally written in German and here translated into English. The editor of this edition came across this little book whilst researching for a translation of Texan history. Such a book would have undoubtedly been read to the family on Sundays and holidays and perhaps accompanied the early pioneer on his travels and daily work. They encourage and amplify the courage and strength which those early immigrants to Texas would have needed in order to be able to survive and prosper.Numbers 1 to 73 were written by Lessing, numbers 96 to 112 by Krummacher.I have added some notes based on information contained in the online encyclopedia for additional information at the end of the book.I hope you enjoy these meaningful tales as much as I have whilst composing this edition.From the original introduction:This little volume contains a selection of Fables and Parables from the German of Lessing, Herder, Krummacher, and others—few of which have hitherto been placed before the English Public—but which, when known, can hardly fail to amuse and instruct readers of every class. They possess too a specific value as being the product of the most reflecting people of modern times, and of one whose genius is particularly adapted to this kind of writing. Many of those pieces, and especially the allegorical Parables of Herder, are marked by great beauty of expression; while those of Lessing again, are amongst the best models of the Fable, strictly so called. Profound truths appertaining to the practical conduct of life are throughout.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTexianer Verlag
    Release dateMay 17, 2020
    ISBN9780463001493
    Fables and Parables: From the German of Lessing, Herder, Gellert, Miessner &C, &C

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      Book preview

      Fables and Parables - Lessing

      Fables and Parables

      From the  from the German of Lessíng, Herder, Gellert, Miessner,  &c. &c.

      This edition has been edited by

      ©2020 Stephen A. Engelking

      and Published by Texianer Verlag

      Tuningen, Germany

      www.texianer.com

      Title Cover:

      Anna Rosina de Gasc: Portrait of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

      (Public Domaine PD-US)

      Editor’s Notes

      This edition of the Fables and Parables has been reset from the original book from 1846 which was published by James Burns in London.

      The original spelling and grammar have been intentionally retained in order for the reader to get a feel for the culture of the time. As mentioned in the original introduction below, these fables were originally written in German and here translated into English. The editor of this edition came across this little book whilst researching for a translation of Texan history. Such a book would have undoubtedly been read to the family on Sundays and holidays and perhaps accompanied the early pioneer on his travels and daily work. They confirmed and amplified the courage and strength which those early immigrants to Texas would have needed in order to be able to survive and prosper.

      Numbers 1 to 73 were written by Lessing, numbers 96 to 112 by Krummacher.

      I have added some notes based on information contained in the online encyclopedia for additional information at the end of the book.

      I hope you enjoy these meaningful tales as much as I have whilst composing this edition.

      Stephen Engelking—Editor February 2020.

      Introduction

      This little volume contains a selection of Fables and Parables from the German of Lessing[1], Herder[2], Krummacher[3], and others—few of which have hitherto been placed before the English Public—but which, when known, can hardly fail to amuse and instruct readers of every class. They possess too a specific value as being the product of the most reflecting people of modern times, and of one whose genius is particularly adapted to this kind of writing. Many of those pieces, and especially the allegorical Parables of Herder, are marked by great beauty of expression; while those of Lessing again, are amongst the best models of the Fable, strictly so called. Profound truths appertaining to the practical conduct of life are throughout exhibited in the most striking and engaging manner.

      The theory and history of Parabolic Literature in general is full of moral and literary interest. The charm which works of this class possess for the young mind, still lingers around them in maturer years. Often has the worn Æsop, or Dodsley, from which the boy won such vivid delight, been to the thoughtful man a storehouse of practical truth. The antiquity and universal prevalence of the Fable, make it a subject of interesting investigation for the scholar. He compares its existing specimens, and traces the analogies of its use among different nations. Everywhere it presents the same general characteristics. But it is in its higher office, as an effective mode of setting moral truth before the rude and unformed mind, that the teacher contemplates this form of fictitious literature. Its use for this end has been acknowledged by the wise and good of all ages. Great poets and sages and law-givers, whose souls were occupied with eternal truths, sought by the Fable to teach them to their fellows. In its simple incidents they have found a vehicle for the moral truth, which, enunciated in its pure and abstract form, would fall dull and fruitless on minds unsusceptible of speculative instruction. They have seen that it is founded on a just view of man’s nature, and have gladly adopted a mean for subjecting to the mind of the child or savage those universal truths which bind together the earth and the heavens. And so it was that Plato, the truth-seeker, desired a writer of Fables for his ideal Republic; and that our own good King Alfred, embodying, as we read, his morality in apologues, sought by their aid to mould and mature the rugged Saxon nature. And—with reverence to pass from mention of human wisdom to His holy example—it was in Parables that the Great Teacher, who knew what was in the heart of man, set forth in the plain and on the hill-side the order and laws of His Divine œconomy. By his parabolic teaching all things and circumstances of earth were invested with a higher significance, and brought into a typical relation with the unseen world. While he spake the lilies of the field grew bright with a spiritual meaning, and the common forms of the external world shone as it were with a symbolic glory.

      The interest and importance of the Fable will be most clearly seen by examining, I.—Its object and essential characteristics. II.—Its peculiar machinery. III.—Its history and use in ancient and modem times.

      I.—Its object and essential characteristics.

      The word Fable in its original sense simply means a narrative. Thus we speak of the Fable of the Epopee or Drama. But it is used here to signify only the so-called Æsopian[4] Fable. This, too, is a narrative with a definite object, and subject to certain conditions.

      The proper Fable may be defined as a simple example in which an universal moral truth is so clearly developed that it necessarily becomes evident to the intuitive perception.

      Hence at once appears the nature and object of the Fable. Moral science, like every other science, consists of universal conclusions, and therefore requires examples. By an example, I mean a particular case through which the universal law, as it were, shines. The Fable seeks to supply the most perfect examples to moral science. By its aid a general conclusion can be exhibited in a particular case. The impression which in this form it makes on the intuitive perception is communicated to the will, and so moves the whole moral nature. The degree of conviction of course depends on the vividness and clearness with which the moral beams forth from every part of the Fable. It is to the existence of this intuitive perception that the popularity of the Fable among children and men in a low state of civilization must be attributed. The universal thus reduced to the especial, strikes the most uneducated mind. Symbolical conclusions, to grasp which in their abstract form requires a high exertion of faith and thought, thus win from every heart an irresistible assent. Hence its use as an instrument of persuasion.

      The different forms of the Fable admit of many divisions. The most common of these is into rational and irrational, or the parable and apologue. In the first of these, the Fable consists of a case possessing such a high degree of probability, that the mind naturally admits it as actual, and in full faith deduces from it the desired inference. In the second, a case is supposed in its nature impossible. Dogs discourse, and brambles are found deep in meditation. This at first sight seems like what is commonly called arguing in a circle. To prove and illustrate a certain truth, a fabulist invents an impossible incident, which is in its turn appealed to for the support of the moral. There is not, however, so much difference between these two kinds of Fable as would at a glance appear. The supposition, for instance, that a dog and a crow can hold a reasonable discussion, though impossible, must be admitted, for the time, as not only possible but as a positive fact. This step once gained, the apologue becomes perhaps more efficacious than the parable. Its incident acquires a virtual if not an actual reality. Indeed it would not be going too far to assert, that while the impossible incident thus becomes to the mind of the hearer a virtual reality, the actual occurrence never assumes more than a very high degree of probability. In many Oriental parables, and especially in those of the

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