Fable
any fictitious narrative; more particularly a kind of literary composition, either prose or verse, in which a short fictitious story is made to convey practical rules of prudence or wisdom.
The fable consists properly of two parts _ the symbolical representation, and the application of the moral of the tale.
Among the most celebrated fables of the East, where this species of composition seems to have originated, are the Indian fables of Pilpay, or Bilpai, and the more eager Arabic collection of Lokman, who is said to have lived in the time of King David. Among the Greeks, the fables of Æsop were well known, but many of those that were current in Greece under his name are identical with those of the East. In Latin, Phædrus has left about 90 fables of considerable merit in imitation of Æsop; but the well-known fable of "the town-mouse and the countrymouse," related by Horace, is the best in that language. During the Middle Ages the fable was not entirely neglected; "Reynard the Fox," a famous mediæval epic, may be considered as a sort of extended satirical fable. Among the most distinguished of the later fable-writers are Gellert, Gleim, and Lessing of Germany, and Gay of England, but pre-eminent among all the modern fabulists, for his delicate sarcasm and his lively wit, is the French La Fontaine. by its members, advocating the gradual extension of government functions in e public utilities and industry. Since the war, however, this principle of reform has grown into disfavor, especially among the labor organizations, which have had a tendency toward syndicalism, or modifications of that theory, which implies the management of industry by labor organizations. The Fabian Society, also, has shown a broader interest in other plans for collectivist reorganization, especially in the direction of consumers' co-operation.