PREFACE. 



METHINKS I hear some one say, Why are things inanimate 

 thus fabled to speak ? Why not rather tell concerning their 

 properties and uses, and the places of their growth, without 

 having recourse to fiction? Be not chafed, courteous 

 Reader, but remember, that poets in all ages have preferred 

 to instruct mankind after the same manner ; that even the 

 Sacred Volume offers a precedent which cannot be objected 

 to ; when Jotham, desiring to reprove the treachery of 

 the men of Shechem, went to the top of Mount Gerizim, 



