Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern is a book by Thomas Newbigging. It provides the reader with an analysis of classic Greek fables. Excerpt: “Fables treat of the follies and weaknesses, and also of the nobler qualities, of humankind, generally[8] through the medium of the lower animals and the members of the vegetable and natural kingdom. These are made to represent the characters we find in human life. Curious, that although it is chiefly the lower animals and inanimate things that are made the vehicle of the instruction or reproof contained in the story, we do not feel that there is any incongruity in these having the power of speech.”
