Lehren der Weisheit und Tugend in auserlesenen Fabeln, Erzählungen und Liedern: Ein Buch für die Jugend

Abstract

Someone must have found some very useful material in this book, since it went through ten editions! It is organized into three major sections. The first has five subsections: Activity and Industriousness; Moderation and Self-Control; Orderliness; Carefulness; and Wisdom and Innocence. The second major section has seven subsections: Love and Obedience; Brotherly Love; Charity; Justice; Honesty; Envy; and Gentleness. The third major section deals with the love and greatness of God. Some 212 texts are subsumed under these headings. I have sampled some texts. They seem surprisingly simple. A smart young mouse recognizes a trap but wants to smell the bacon. She just touches the bacon and is trapped (Kazner). Play with danger and you may get hurt (39)! A child enjoys the house of cards he built, but it falls down. What he builds next is better. Patience and courage can do great things (Gellert, 83). A good version of Hercules and the Carter comes, apparently, from Zacharia: Prayer helps, but not alone; work, and then prayer will be effective! (104). A young mouse debates -- and then makes the wrong choice -- as her mother warns and as the cat beckons (124-5). Hagedorn does a good verse presentation of The Stag and the Vine: I die because I wounded the one who gave me safety (144-45). Similarly, Gellert's The Blind and the Lame makes its point nicely (175). Lohn der Luege (193) is a good presentation of BW. This book is in surprisingly good condition for its age.