77
Writing fables was an employment of his pen, in which he particularly delighted. His invention was quick and various; but the unity of the story cannot in general be supposed to have been very consistently supported, nor the moral drift to have been always very obvious or pertinent. There was however, for the most part, more meaning than he well knew how to express. His thoughts often wandered from the straight forward road in which he was travelling; but he did not look with a vacant or a drowsy eye on the various objects in his wild excursion. The two following fables have each of them the same title; but their subject is altogether different. The date of the first is Sept. 15, 1801. That of the second, May, 1802.
