In PROSE and VERSE,
From the Best AUTHORS,

ANCIENT and MODERN.
Designed for the Instruction of both Sexes,

AS WELL A s
The USE of ENGLISH SCHOOLS.

Containing 240 Fables, which are nearly as many more than have
appeared in any Book on the Subject extant, at the Price.

The SECOND EDITION.

Here all Mankind may view the Moral Glas
And laugh at Folly's Offspring as they pass;
By Proxy curd, may here grovu cheaply wi/
And their own Fauits, in others stamp'd, desgile.

: By G. GRE Y,
Author of the EPITOME of the History of England.

Bland.

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE:
PRINTED for THOMAS SL ACK.,

M. DCC. XXXII,
270. g. 739.

PREF A C E.

To convey instruction by Fable, is not

1 only the easiest and moft intelligible way, but also one of the politeft ; as it comes nearest to personal dialogue, and yet not so liable to give offence. Fables are calculated to point out to us a proper behaviour, not only in respect to our own conduct, but to that of others; and demonstrate to us every virtue which claims our beft regard, and also every vice which we should be studious to avoid : Nay, they furnith us with rules for our conduct in every station of life ; and may be. properly called the emblems of pure morality and found policy, expressed in the moft engaging and pleasing manner.

The origin of fables is very ancient ; nor' can it be properly ascertained. The bulk of the fables we have in prose, we are indebted tó an ingenious old gentleman for, called Æfop, who published them about the time the Roman empire began to rise out of obscurity. Same fables indeed have been done by other learned gentlemen since his time ; a 2