_To the Youth of the British Isles._
In collecting together, for your use and benefit, some of the
prudential maxims, and moral apothegms, of the ancient sages, the
Publishers of this volume have been stimulated by an ardent desire to
render this excellent mode of instruction as agreeable as possible;
and, at the same time, to impress the precepts contained in the
Fables more forcibly on your minds, they have endeavoured to make the
embellishments worthy of your notice and examination.
If the seeds of morality and patriotism be early sown, they will spring
up, and ripen to maturity, in a confirmed love of truth, integrity
and honour; and without these for his guide, no man can do credit to
himself or his country. This consideration is of vital importance; for
our comfort and happiness through life, mainly depend upon a strict
adherence to the rules of morality and religion. The youth who is
early tutored in an invincible regard for his own character, will soon
perceive the duties imposed upon him by society, and will have pleasure
in fulfilling them, as much for his own satisfaction as for the sake of
his fellow men: but when the latent powers of the mind are neglected,
or not directed into the paths of rectitude, by good precepts and
worthy examples, vice and folly enter the opening, and lead their
victim into evils and errors, which render his life miserable, and
sometimes hurry him into an ignominious grave.
To delineate the characters and passions of men, under the semblance of
Lions, Tigers, Wolves, and Foxes, is not so extravagant a fiction as it
may at first sight seem: for the innocent and inexperienced will find,
when they engage in the busy scenes of the world, that they will have
to deal with men of dispositions not unlike those animals; and that
their utmost vigilance will be required to guard against their violence
or machinations.
In attempting to form an estimate of the characters of mankind, many
gradations and shades will be found between the two extremes of virtue
and vice. The philanthropist views with feelings of benevolence the
wavering balance, and adds those he finds on the confines, to the
number of the virtuous; while the misanthrope, with gloomy malignity,
endeavours to include within the circle of vice, those who are standing
upon the ill-defined line of division, and thus swells the number
of the bad. Both observe with pain, that great numbers exist, whose
whole lives seem to be spent in disfiguring the beautiful order which
might otherwise reign in society, regardless of the misery which their
wickedness scatters around them. They see men, who suffer their bad
passions and gross appetites to be the sole rule of their conduct;
and whether these shew themselves in an inordinate ambition, a thirst
after false glory, or an insatiable avarice, their consequences are
pernicious, and diffuse evil, distress, and ruin among mankind, in
proportion to the extent to which their baneful influence reaches. The
misanthrope, in contemplating the scene of mischief and disorder, is
apt to arraign the wisdom and justice of Providence for permitting it
to exist; but the philanthropist views it with a more extended range of
vision; and while he laments the evil, he attributes the apparent want
of human feelings in the actors, to an early perversion of intellect,
or to a stifling of the reasoning power given by the Great Creator to
man for his guide, and without which he is the worst animal in the
creation, a mere two-legged Tiger. Upon the childhood and youth of
such men, the great truth taught by the inspired and wisest writers
of all ages, that “no life can be pleasing to God which is not useful
to man,” has not been sufficiently impressed, or probably the energy
with which they pursue their wicked career might have been led into a
different course, and instead of the scourges, they would have been the
benefactors of mankind.
When religion and morality are blended together in the mind, they
impart their blessings to all who seek the aid of the one and obey
the dictates of the other, and their joint effects are seen and felt
in the perpetual cheerfulness they impart. They incite the innocent
whistle of the ploughman at his plough, of the cobler in his stall,
and the song of the milk-maid at her pail: and it is a sign of their
being perverted, when they engender melancholy notions; for these are
the offspring of bigotry, fanaticism, and ignorance. The service of
the Omnipotent is not of this gloomy cast; he has spread out the table
of this beautiful world of wonders, for the use of his creatures, and
has placed man at the head of it, that he might enjoy its bounties, as
well as prepare himself for the approaching change to another, which
inspiration has powerfully impressed on his soul as the _unknowable_
region of his next advance. The materialist, in his dreary reveries,
cannot comprehend this, neither will he acknowledge that his being
placed here is equally as miraculous as that he should be placed in
another world or worlds, progressively to improve, to all eternity: but
to harbour doubts on this subject, is like disputing the wisdom, the
justice, and the mercy of the Author of our being, who, according to
the conceptions we form of his goodness, as exhibited in the design,
the grandeur, and the immensity of creation, where every thing is
systematic, regular, and in order, would never decree that man should
be placed here instinctively to know his Maker--to take a short peep at
the stupendous, the amazing whole--to view all these, and have powers
of mind given him only to know and repugnantly to feel, that after a
life mixed with turmoil, grief, and disease, he is to be annihilated!
In our conception of things, and to the limited understanding which has
been given us, all this would appear to be labour in vain.
The volume of the creation speaks alike to all, and cannot be defaced
by man; but the ways of Providence are beyond his comprehension.
Omnipotence has not been pleased to gratify his pride and vanity, nor
to consult his understanding, in the government of the universe; but
sufficient has been disclosed unto him to point out the moral duties he
owes to society, and the religious worship due to his Maker, without
groping after what is utterly beyond his reach: for our feeble reason
is too weak to comprehend the divine essence; and our thoughts, on
their utmost stretch, roll back on darkness. We reason, but we err:
for how can we comprehend the immensity of endless space, of time and
eternity, a beginning or an end; or what conceptions can we form of
the Power which made the sun and worlds without number? Truly, this
is far too much for a finite being, who does not know why he can move
one of his own fingers, or cease to do so when he pleases! But all may
know and fulfil their religious obligations, by reverencing and adoring
their Creator, and walking humbly before him, and their moral duties,
by being in their several stations, good sons, brothers, husbands,
wives, fathers, mothers, neighbours, and members of society.
Having, with humble diffidence, in this masquerade of life, attempted
to point out to youth the exterior of the temple of virtue, and to
lead them to its steps, the Editor leaves them there, respectfully
recommending them to explore the whole interior, under the guidance of
men more eminent for their mental powers and attainments in learning,
philosophy, and piety. Of these, an illustrious band have placed, at
every avenue and turning, their inestimable works, as directions to
guide us to usefulness and respectability here, and eternal happiness
hereafter.
[Illustration: _Thomas Bewick_]
_Newcastle, September, 1818._
[Illustration]