I. The maxim, that a lie is always the child of something, has done great
mischief in the world; because it authorizes fiction, attributing to it
an illustrious birth, by supposing it to have been derived from, and
nursed in the cradle of truth. Those who adopt this opinion, conjecture,
that there is no error whatever which has not more or less mixture of
reality in its composition, and that fable, is always built upon some
solid historical fact.
II. Both reason and experience militate against this vulgar hypothesis;
experience, because we every day see artful impositions, which owe
their origin, solely to the malice of those who prefer them. What reason
could the wife of Potipher have, for attributing an infamous attempt to
the chaste Joseph? What mixture of truth was there in the premeditated
accusation, which the two old lechers preferred against the innocent
Susannah? but it is wasting time to repeat examples, which are daily
presenting themselves to our eyes and ears.
III. If we consult reason, we shall be convinced, that he who can devise
the one half of a fabulous tale, can easily invent the other half; for
what more difficulty can there occur in the invention of the one, than
the other part of it? or what necessity is there for his borrowing
materials for a fable from a true event, who possesses a fertile mine
of them in his own imagination? The logicians say, and they say right,
that there are some entities of reason which have real foundations; and
others, which have none. This maxim may be applied to fables; as there
are many of them which are partly grounded on true facts; and many
likewise, whose composition is all pure iron, in which, there is not the
least mixture of either gold or silver.