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In the various periods of the world’s history men have appeared who were gifted with greater powers of mind and intelligence than the majority of the people in whose age they lived, who, by becoming the preceptors or teachers of the masses, evidently fulfilled the designs of the Creator, by promoting civilisation and happiness, by unity of thought and knowledge. Such men were Æsop, William Shakespeare, Fielding, Scott, and many others, and later, in our own time, Thackeray and Charles Dickens. One of the most ancient and interesting methods of conveying instruction was by the art of Fable, Allegory, or Parable.

Fable is an ingenious method of conveying advice and instruction, without seeming so to do, by a diverting little narrative, which, attracting attention, irresistibly chains it till the moral is imperceptibly rooted in the mind, there to influence, for the better it may be, all future actions of importance. Æsop was, and is, the most favourite of Fabulists, of whom a fair and goodly succession have since appeared; but still he maintains, and will continue to maintain the foremost place in literature as a writer of instructive and entertaining Fables. We here reprint an edition comparatively unknown in the present generation, illustrated by the graver of Bewick, and arranged by the pen of Goldsmith. Bewick and Goldsmith’s early works are comparatively unknown to the literary and reading world. We all know that Bewick designed and engraved the inimitable “British Quadrupeds,” “Birds,” “Fables,” &c., and that Goldsmith wrote the “Vicar of Wakefield,” “Traveller,” “Deserted Village,” &c., but what do we know of their early works—the progressive steps by which they attained their wondrous and well-earned celebrity? It has been the pleasing pursuit of the writer (for some years) to search for, and rescue from destruction and oblivion, all possible early works of Bewick and Goldsmith. The result has exceeded his most sanguine expectations. He has discovered at least twenty little works written by Goldsmith during his weary hours of adversity, all bearing strong internal evidence of the author’s mind and style. (A work on this subject is preparing for the press, profusely illustrated with original woodcuts, &c.) The early editions of the present work were printed by T. Saint, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. We will here give a very brief resumé of Bewick’s earliest works (published by Saint), with a few woodcuts from the original blocks, thus illustrating the progressive stages of pictorial fine art by which Thomas Bewick succeeded in producing the wood-engravings which embellish the present volume, of which (edit. 1784) Jackson, in his work on wood-engraving (1861, p. 480), says:—

“He (Bewick) evidently improved as his talents were exercised; for the cuts in the “Select Fables,” 1784, are generally much superior to those in “Gay’s Fables,” 1779. The animals are better drawn and engraved; the sketches of landscape in the backgrounds are more natural; and the engraving of the foliage of the trees and bushes is not unfrequently scarce inferior to that of his later productions.”

Jackson gives three examples of these Fable cuts in his work, at pp. 480, 503 (“Wood-Engravings,” 1861). Thomas Bewick was apprenticed to R. Beilby, October 1, 1767. It is probable that the cuts given in next page are among the very first engraved by Thomas Bewick during his apprenticeship, and were used in “A New Invented Horn Book,” also in “Battledores,” “Primers,” and “Reading Easies.” He then executed the diagrams for Hutton on Mensuration, 4to, 1770. One of the cuts is given in “Jackson” (p. 475), a representation of St Nicholas’ celebrated steeple. This is the first known pictorial attempt of Bewick’s.

“Horn Book” Cuts.

Facsimile of Bewick’s cut, St. Nicholas’ Steeple, Newcastle, 1770.

No doubt coarse cuts were done by Bewick about this time for local Ballads, Broadsides, Garlands, and Histories.

The next recognised work I discovered myself, the “New Lottery-Book of Birds and Beasts, for Children to learn their Letters by, as soon as they can speak” (Saint, 1771, 32mo, bds. and gilt). Two of the cuts follow.

The “Child’s Tutor” (Saint, 1772-73, square 24mo), cuts, with verses, &c., by Oliver Goldsmith. The following is undoubtedly by the Poet’s hand:—“The Lilliputian Magazine; or, the Young Gentleman and Lady’s Golden Library, being an attempt to mend the World, to render the Society of Man more amiable, and to establish the Plainness, Simplicity, Virtue, and Wisdom of the Golden Age, so much celebrated by the Poets and Historians—

‘Man in that age no rule but Reason knew,

And with a native bent did Good pursue;

Unforc’d by Punishment, unaw’d by Fear,

His Words were Simple and his Soul Sincere.’”

(T. Saint, circa 1772, early Bewick woodcuts, 144 pp. 24mo.) The verse and title bear the undoubted impress of his genius and style. Oliver Goldsmith wrote it for J. Newbery, of London, but, as I shall show in my larger work on this subject, there was an arrangement between them by which Saint reprinted many of his (Newbery’s) little books for the North-Country trade. We then have “Moral Instructions of a Father to his Son,” comprehending the whole system of Morality, &c., &c.; and “Select Fables,” extracted from Dodsley, and others, adorned with emblematical cuts, 12mo, T. Saint, Newcastle, 1772 and 1775. This, then, is one of the first works of Saint’s we have seen containing cuts of Fables.

Having a doubt respecting the cuts of this rare book, I took my copy to Miss Bewick (Jan. 1867), and inquired of her if they were engraved by her father. She kindly gave me the following authentic information:—“The cuts were engraved by Thomas Bewick in the first year of his apprenticeship (1767-68), excepting the cut of a ship at sea, p. 167. This was engraved by David Martin, Bewick’s fellow-apprentice, Bewick at this time disliking to represent ‘water.’” This, then, sets all doubt at rest respecting the cuts in an “Æsop’s Fables,” “Gay’s Fables,” &c., &c., published by Saint about this date, in which the same and similar cuts were used. The following, used in “Gay,” is evidently Bewick’s first attempt at the subject for which he afterwards gained a premium.

“Moral Instructions,” 1772, and “Select Fables,” 1776.

“Select Fables,” Æsop, &c. (Saint, 1776).

The next is the first edition of the present volume, “Select Fables” (T. Saint, Newcastle, 1776). In three Parts. Part I. After the Manner of Dodsley’s. Part II. Fables with Reflections. Part III. Fables in Verse. To which are prefixed the Life of Æsop; and An Essay upon Fable—(same Verse and Vignette, as in the 2d Edition, of 1784). Containing one hundred and fourteen cuts, including those mentioned in the “Moral Instructions,” described above, and fourteen larger and much superior cuts, with borders, afterwards used with others in “Gay’s Fables,” printed by T. Saint, in 1779. The same vignette appears on the title as in the Second Edition of this Book in 1784. It also has a copperplate frontispiece, “R. Beilby delint. et sculpt.” 12mo, 211 pages, 2 pages of Index, &c. (notice the variations in the title, &c., to the 1784 edition). The only copy of this edition (1776) I ever had, or saw, is now in the unique collection of E. B. Jupp, Esq., who has kindly lent the block for the Frontispiece to the present Edition. It was engraved for “The Beauties of Æsop” (Kendal, circa 1800-22), by Thomas Bewick, and is somewhat like Beilby’s copperplate frontispiece to 1776 Edition, but infinitely improved. It contains about seventy delineations of animal and bird life, &c. (see the tailpiece at page 122 of present edition, extremely like in arrangement, execution, &c.), while the portrait of Æsop is certainly the most reasonable I have yet seen in examining the numerous editions which have passed through my hands.

About this time, 1773 to 1776, many works issued from Saint’s press—“Robinson Crusoe,” “Watt’s Songs,” Oliver Goldsmith’s “Tommy Trip” (see my reprint, of 1867), “Goody Two Shoes,” “Golden Toy or Fairing,” “Tom Telescope’s Newtonian Philosophy,” “Tommy Tagg’s Poems,” and numerous others. Examples of cuts follow.

Similar to “Tommy Trip” series of Cuts.

“Tommy Two Shoes.”

“Adventures of a Kitten.”

“Holy Bible in Miniature.”

“Memoirs of a Peg-Top.”

“Poetical Fabulator.”

A New Edition of “Tommy Tagg,” with sixty cuts, will shortly be printed. (Specimen of the Woodcuts.)

“The Concert of Birds,” from “Tommy Tagg.”

“Story-Teller.”

We now reach a period to which Bewick himself thus refers at pages 59, 60 of his “Memoirs” (Longman, 1862):—“We were occasionally applied to by (local) printers to execute woodcuts for them.... Orders were received for cuts for Children’s Books, chiefly for Thomas Saint, printer, Newcastle, and successor of John White, who had rendered himself famous for his numerous publications of histories and old ballads.... My time now became greatly taken up with designing and cutting a set of wood blocks for the ‘Story-Teller,’ ‘Gay’s Fables,’ and ‘Select Fables,’ together with cuts of a similar kind for printers.”

The following are among those referred to by Bewick:—“Youth’s Instructive and Entertaining Story-Teller, being a Choice Collection of Moral Tales, Chiefly deduced from real Life, calculated to enforce the Practice of Virtue, and expand every social Idea in the Human heart. Adorned with emblematical cuts from the most interesting part of each Tale, and methodised after the Plan recommended by the late ingenious Dr Goldsmith. To which is added, by way of Preface, Thoughts on the Present Mode of Education.” (Newcastle, T. Saint.) Three Editions, circa 1774-7-8, 12mo, thirty-seven woodcuts. The cuts in this book are larger than any in the preceding books. We give the cut at page 48 of a Shipwrecked Sailor kneeling on a rock saying his prayers, the tide rising around him, which is the first and earliest engraving of this subject by T. Bewick, afterwards one of his favourite Vignettes in the “British Birds.” The others are all about the size of the cuts in “Gay’s Fables,” 1779, or “Select Fables,” 1784, and have similar borders.

“Bob Easy.”

“The Huntsman and Old Hound.”

“Jackson” refers to this and the following two works:—“Gay’s Fables.” Fables by the late Mr Gay, in One Volume complete, Newcastle, printed by and for T. Saint, 1779, 12mo, 77 cuts of Fables, with borders and 33 Vignettes; for the tasteful and clever engraving of five of the cuts (one, the Huntsman and Old Hound[1]) the Royal Society of Arts presented Bewick with their medal; it is further embellished with a beautifully engraved Frontispiece, by R. Beilby (T. Saint, Newcastle, 1779). We give an impression of the original wood-engraving, exceedingly interesting, as now Bewick seems to have received the required impetus or encouragement to produce the engravings for “Select Fables,” T. Saint, 1784. In three parts. Part I. Fables extracted from Dodsley’s; Part II. Fables, with Reflections in Prose and Verse; Part III. Fables in Verse; to which are prefixed the Life of Æsop, and an Essay upon Fable, A New Edition Improved. For this edition a new set of cuts was engraved by Thomas Bewick. “These cuts were then deemed superior to any of Bewick’s previous productions.” The same year another impression of this work was printed with the same title page, but considerable variations in the letterpress, and vignettes occur at pages 122, 125, and 152, which are not in the former edition, printed in 1784, 12mo. This is the book we now reprint (Saint’s collection of Bewick’s blocks having passed into my hands.) An original copy of the 1784 edition in fine state is so rare, that a copy has realised, at auction, £7, 10s. Bewick says (p. 60, “Memoir,” 1862): “Some of the Fable (“Gay,” 1779) cuts were thought so much of by my master (Beilby), that he, in my name, sent impressions of a few of them to be laid before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., and I obtained a premium.” (Seven guineas, which he took intense pleasure in presenting to his mother.) We have thus, by easy stages, travelled through the various phases of talent, to the most important work produced before his well-known “British Quadrupeds,” first published 1790; “British Birds,” 1797, 1804; and his large edition of “Æsop’s Fables,” 1818 (each work embellished with his inimitable and ever-pleasing vignettes). Examples from all these works follow.

“The Chillingham Wild Bull.”—Bewick’s large engraving of this subject, with border, has realised twenty guineas. See “Jackson on Wood-Engraving.”

British Quadrupeds.

Vignette to “Quadrupeds.”

“Select Fables,” 1820, Charnley’s Edition, 8vo, and in early Children’s Books (Saint, Newcastle).

Intended for “Bewick’s British Birds”—“Chimney Swallow,” injured and rejected.

Facsimile of Bewick’s Skylark.

Vignette to “Birds.”—Angler and Sportsman.

Engraved for “Bewick’s Æsop,” 1818, unfinished and rejected.

Vignette to “Æsop.”

These remarks are rapidly written, but they are the result of years of research and study: so that the reader of this Preface has a brief resumé of Bewick’s talents from his earliest efforts to his most finished productions; a result which no one living is able to give from the original woodcuts but myself; thus forming a most useful manual or pictorial aid to connoisseurs in selecting early works illustrated by “Bewick,” the more valuable, as scarcely any of the works mentioned as published by Saint are in the British Museum.

Now, as to the “Goldsmith” interest as connected with this work, the 1776 Newcastle edition was evidently copied from “Dodsley’s” and other editions of “Select Fables of Æsop” published in London prior to this period. In the meantime, J. Newbery and others, for whom Goldsmith wrote prefaces and arranged and edited books, had published new editions, so that when Saint went to press with “A New Edition Improved” (with a new set of cuts by the Bewicks), evidently the book was remodelled and extended from one that Goldsmith had just edited. In Dodsley’s Preface to his Fables, he says “he has been assisted in it by gentlemen of the most distinguished abilities; and that several, both of the old and the new Fables, are not written by himself, but by authors with whom it is an honour to be connected.” Dodsley also refers to the Life of Æsop, &c., as being written by “a learned and ingenious friend.” Doubtless Dr Johnson and Goldsmith were the “authors,” and Goldsmith the “friend,” here referred to. Be that as it may, the present work bears sufficient internal evidence in the “Essay on Fable,” the “Poetical Applications,” and the “Fables in Verse,” that Oliver Goldsmith was the author; for it is identical in style with numerous prefaces and essays written about this period by Oliver Goldsmith for Newbery, Dodsley, Griffiths, and others. Much conclusive evidence on this interesting subject will be given in my new book on “The early works of Bewick and Goldsmith” (a Prospectus of which will shortly be issued). The applications to this edition are infinitely superior to any edition which had appeared prior to its publication. In Sir Roger L’Estrange and Croxall’s editions, the applications were warped away from their original and intended effect by political distortions and obsolete terms, which often strayed far from, instead of assisting, the subject. It is somewhat refreshing, then, in the edition here reprinted, to meet with some applications which are everything that could be desired, in easy, naturally flowing, and apt language, just to the point; and who was so much a master of such language as Oliver Goldsmith?—of whom Dr Johnson said, “He left no species of writing unadorned.” It may be interesting here to quote from Bewick’s Memoir of himself (not published till 1862), his opinion of this book, which at once justifies the parent, preceptor, or friend, in selecting this as a most suitable present for the young of both sexes; he says (pages 172-3):—“I was extremely fond of that book (‘Æsop’s Fables’); and as it had afforded me much pleasure, I thought, with better executed designs, it would impart the same kind of delight to others that I had experienced from attentively reading it. I was also of opinion, that it had (while admiring the cuts) led hundreds of young men into the paths of wisdom and rectitude, and in that way had materially assisted the pulpit.”

The lessons intended to be conveyed through the medium of Fable are certainly plainer and easier to be understood in this edition than in the once popular “Croxall;” and the publishers believe, therefore, that the book in its present form will be found a powerful auxiliary in the important practical feeling for the education of the rising generation, illustrated as it is by the early but forcible and natural rendering of these Fables by the inimitable Bewick, through the medium of which is imparted the profound good sense, wisdom, and experience of the ancient philosophers. I have already exceeded the limits of an ordinary Preface. On a future occasion I will endeavour to show how coincidently Bewick and Goldsmith worked together to produce results—the importance of which can scarcely be fully estimated. I will now conclude with one of those exquisite little pictures of nature that will never cease to exhibit the true art of pleasing as long as “the language of England is spoken, or her literature cultivated.”

EDWIN PEARSON.

“Say, should the philosophic mind disdain

That good, which makes each humble bosom vain?

Let school-taught pride dissemble all it can,

These little things are great to little man.”