JESOP. O 



affirming that they could do everything ; therefore there is nothing 

 left for me to do." Xanthus, delighted with this answer, now entered 

 into conversation with this unattractive wit, and became fully sensible 

 of his superior powers. In answer to a question respecting the 

 deformity of his person, JSsop boldly remarked, " that a philosopher 

 like Xanthus should appreciate a man according to the vigour of his 

 mind, and not to the appearance of his body;" an observation upon 

 which that philosopher immediately acted. The factor being asked 

 the price of his deformed slave, declared that could he obtain from the 

 purchaser a proper sum for the other two, he would cheerfully part 

 with jEsop for nothing. This offer was accepted ; Xanthus at once 

 paid the price to which he had first objected for the musician and the 

 orator, and returned home with all three of the slaves. JEsop here 

 found his master in more hopeless bondage than himself, to a wife of 

 a most furious arid jealous temper. On his first appearance amongst Anecdotes, 

 the domestics, as her husband's slave, she asked, in scorn, of Xanthus, 

 " whether it were a beast or a man that he had now brought home ?" 

 when uEsop, unable to repress a similar disposition, is said to have 

 exclaimed, " From the mercies of fire, water, and a wicked woman, 

 great gods deliver us!" This of course awoke the vehement temper 

 of his mistress, and Msop, with difficulty, brought himself through 

 this awkward reception, by pretending that he only recited some lines 

 of the poet Euripides, and observing, how practicable it was for her 

 whom he addressed to make herself " as glorious in the rank of good 

 women." This story, however, cannot be correct in its entire details, 

 for the murder of JEsop, in Delphi, occurred at least eighty years 

 before the Greek tragedian was born. It is stated, however, that the 

 aptness of ^Esop's reply on this occasion conciliated the favour of the 

 incensed lady. 



^Esop had not been long in the service of the Samian philosopher, 

 when the latter took his newly-acquired slave to a gardener for the 

 purpose of purchasing some herbs; the agriculturalist, observing 

 Xanthus in the habit of a philosopher, inquired the reason why those 

 plants which grew of themselves, and without any artificial aid, should 

 come up so fast and thrive so well, whilst others, though never so 

 carefully cultivated, could scarcely be preserved from perishing. "Now," 

 continued the gardener, " you who are a philosopher, pray disclose to 

 me the meaning of this." Xanthus was, however, utterly at a loss for 

 a satisfactory answer, and was obliged to content himself with saying, 

 " That so Providence had ordered it to be." Here ^Esop interfered ; 

 and, after a sarcasm upon the imperfection of the school of philosophy 

 in which Xanthus was bred, requested to be permitted himself to give 

 the solution. " For what," said the slave, "signifies a general answer 

 to a general question, but an acknowledgment of complete ignorance 

 on the subject proposed ?" To this Xanthus readily consented, observ- 

 ing to the gardener, that it was beneath the dignity of a philosopher 

 to answer minutely such a trivial question. " The earth, then," said 



