iption. The one is the "Speculum
Sapientiae," attributed to St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, but of a
considerably later origin, and existing only in Latin. It is divided
into four books, and consists of long conversations conducted by
fictitious characters under the figures the beasts of the field and
forest, and aimed at the rebuke of particular classes of men, the
boastful, the proud, the luxurious, the wrathful, &c. None of the
stories are precisely those of Aesop, and none have the concinnity,
terseness, and unmistakable deduction of the lesson intended to be
taught by the fable, so conspicuous in the great Greek fabulist. The
exact title of the book is this: "Speculum Sapientiae, B. Cyrilli
Episcopi: alias quadripartitus apologeticus vocatus, in cujus quidem
proverbiis omnis et totius sapientiae speculum claret et feliciter
incipit." The other is a larger work in two volumes, published in the
fourteenth century by Caesar Heisterbach, a Cistercian monk, under the
title of "Dialogus Miraculorum," reprinted in 1851. This work consists
of conversations in which many stories are interwoven on all kinds of
subjects. It has no correspondence with the pure Aesopian fable.]

[Footnote 12: Post-medieval Preachers, by S. Baring-Gould. Rivingtons,
1865.]

[Footnote 13: For an account of this work see the Life of Poggio
Bracciolini, by the Rev. William Shepherd. Liverpool. 1801.]

[Footnote 14: Professor Theodore Bergh. See Classical Museum, No. viii.
July, 1849.]

[Footnote 15: Vavassor's treatise, entitled "De Ludicra Dictione" was
written A.D. 1658, at the request of the celebrated M. Balzac (though
published after his death), for the purpose of showing that the
burlesque style of writing adopted by Scarron and D'Assouci, and at that
time so popular in France, had no sanction from the ancient classic
writers. Francisci Vavassoris opera omnia. Amsterdam. 1709.]

[Footnote 16: The claims of Babrias also found a warm advocate in the
learned Frenchman, M. Bayle, who, in his admirable dictionary,
(Dictionnaire Historique et Critique de Pierre Bayle. Paris, 1820,)
gives additional arguments in confirmation of the opinions of his
learned predecessors, Nevelet and Vavassor.]

[Footnote 17: Scazonic, or halting, iambics; a choliambic (a lame,
halting iambic) differs from the iambic Senarius in always having a
spondee or trichee for its last foot; the fifth foot, to avoid shortness
of meter, being generally an iambic. See F