longest.

And, now we come to La Fontaine the French
fabulist, who in 1668 published the first six books
of his fables. "Bonhomme La Fontaine," as
he was called, chose his subjects from Aesop and
Phaedrus and Horace, and, in the later volumes,
from such Oriental sources as may have been
within his reach. He rendered the old tales in
easy-flowing verse, full of elegance and charm,
and he composed many original ones besides.
La Bruyere says of him: "Unique in his way
of writing, always original whether he invents or
translates, he surpasses his models and is himself
a model difficult to imitate. . . . He instructs
while he sports, persuades men to virtue
by means of beasts, and exalts trifling subjects
to the sublime."

Voltaire asserts: "I believe that of all authors
La Fontaine is the most universally read. He is
for all minds and all ages."

Later, by a hundred years, than La Fontaine,
comes Krilof, the Russian fable-maker, who
was born in 1768. After failing in many kinds
of literary work the young poet became intimate
with a certain Prince Sergius Galitsin; lived in
his house at Moscow, and accompanied him to
his country place in Lithuania, where he taught