SOURCE: Samuel Richardson, in a preface to Aesop's Fables, 1740, edited by Samuel Richardson, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1975, pp. i-xiv.

In the following excerpt, reprinted in 1975, Richardson discusses the reasons for editing Aesop that motivated Roger L 'Estrange and S. Croxall and Richardson himself especially in regard to the modification of the moral.

When there are so many editions of Æsop's fables, it will be expected, that some reasons should be given for the appearance of a new one; and we shall be as brief on this head, as the nature of the thing will admit. Of all the English editions, we shall consider only two as worthy of notice; to wit, that of the celebrated Sir Roger L 'Estrange, and that which appears under the name of S. Croxal, subscribed to the dedication. And when we have given an account of what each says for his own performance, it...