4 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



the names of his parents we hear nothing. His person, as we have 

 already noticed, was deformed in the highest degree ; an immense 

 Person and protuberance of the back threw his head forward, and appears from 

 complexion. ear jy jjf e to nave utterly stopped his growth : his complexion is said 

 to have been swarthy; and hence some writers have supposed the 

 name of ^Esop to be a corruption of ^Ethiop. In addition to these 

 disadvantages, he had so serious an imperfection in his speech, that 

 for a considerable period of his life he was unable to articulate any 

 sounds distinctly. Camerarius, a learned German critic, to whose 

 researches we shall be much indebted in this paper, mentions a tra- 

 dition, to which, however, he refuses credit, that JEsop had the good 

 fortune in his youth to relieve certain travelling priests of his country 

 who were exhausted with hunger and had lost their way ; when, in 

 requital of his kind offices, by virtue of their prayers to the gods, they 

 first brought him to the use of his tongue. This is all we hear of his 

 Slave of early life. And we next meet with him at the period of his being 

 Xanthus. offered as a slave to his third master, Xanthus (or, as Herodotus calls 

 him, Jadmon), of the island of Samos. He was carried by a factor 

 to Ephesus, together with some other slaves, for the chance of sale, 

 or on business for his master. As our future sage was feeble in his 

 body, his companions allowed him his choice as to which of their 

 different packages he would undertake to carry, and he, to their 

 astonishment, selected the largest and heaviest, containing the pro- 

 visions of the party ; an instance of what they deemed his folly, which 

 excited no little merriment. In the morning ^Esop bore their ridicule 

 and his own burden with patience. At noon, however, the basket 

 of provender was considerably lightened, by the hearty meal which 

 the slaves then made, and ^Esop was, of course, considerably relieved 

 from the weight of his charge. In a few hours more, another meal 

 completely consumed the food, and left the provident weakling 

 entirely at his ease for the remainder of the journey. Upon his 

 arrival at Ephesus with his slaves, the merchant soon disposed of 

 them all by private bargain, excepting three, stated to have been a 

 musician, an orator, and our poor neglected fabulist, of no apparent 

 accomplishments, and of no profession. These he took to the open 

 market, as the only place in which he was likely to dispose of them ; 

 the two former accoutred with the implements of their profession, and 

 the latter making little better appearance that that of a deformed 

 idiot ; when Xanthus, a Samian philosopher, entering the area, was 

 attracted by the appearance of ^Esop's companions, and inquired o 

 .the merchant his price for them. Objecting to this as exorbitant, the 

 philosopher was on the point of quitting the market, when some o 

 the pupils, by whom he was attended, pointed out Msop to his 

 notice. At their solicitation, and jocularly, more than with any] 

 serious intention, he put the accustomed question to the despised, 

 captive, of " What he could do?" " Nothing at all," replied ^Esop;j 

 " for I have just overheard my companions answer your question, by 



