Introductory Note

THE fable, as a form of literary art, hadat all times a great' attraction for Mr. Stevenson; and in an early review ofLord Lytton's Fables in Song he attempted to define some of its proper aims andmethods. To this class of work, according to his conception of the matter,belonged essentially several of his own semi-supernatural stories, such as "Willof the Mill," "Markheim," and even "Jekyll and Hyde ;" in the composition of which there was combined with the dream element,in at least an equal measure, the element of moral allegory or apologue. He wasaccustomed also to try his hand occasionally on the composition of fables more strictlyso called, and cast in the conventional brief and familiar form. By the winterof 1887-88 he had enough of these by him, together with a few others running togreater length, and conceived in a more mystic and legendary vein, to enablehim, as he thought, to see his way towards making a book of them. Such a bookhe promised to Messrs. Longman on the occasion of a visit paid him in New Yorkby a member of the firm in the spring of 1888. Then came his voyage to thePacific and residence at Samoa. Among the multitude of new interests and imageswhich filled his mind during the last six years of his life, he seems to havegiven little thought to the proposed book of fables. One or two, however, aswill be seen, were added to the collection during this period. That collection,as it stood at the time of his death, was certainly not what its author hadmeant it to be. Whether it would have seen the light had he lived is doubtful;but after his death it seemed to his representatives of sufficient interest tobe handed to Messrs. Long- man, in part fulfilment of his old pledge to them, forpublication in their Magazine, and there it first appeared.