It's never too soon to share your favorite classics with the next
generation...
Aesop's Fables belong to every one of us. They were once simply the
words of a slave; a man who lived 600 years before Christ. They were
written down by a Greek, and then a Roman, and they spread, like the
armies of Rome, across the known world. They were told around heathen
campfires, and noble hearths; whispered in sacred monasteries and
churches; lectured in Victorian school rooms and acted out by children
at play.
Each little fable is bound up with 2000 years of wisdom and truth. From
these we know that a mouse is too weak to withstand the strength of a
lion, yet too mighty to be bound by ropes. We learn that the violence of
the North Wind is no match for the gentle beaming of the unrelenting
Sun. We know in our hearts that the sheep must push through life, and
try to overcome its many dangers, that the wolf will trick and deceive
to survive, and that we cannot pretend to understand the logic of the
gods if we do not hold ourselves to the same standard.
Therefore, Aesop's Fables belong to all of us, as Stone Age cave
paintings belong, not to the artist, but to human civilization. It is a
book about what it is to be human, cherished by each generation and
passed on to the next.