Editing Apologue (section)

==Apologue vs parable==
An apologue differs from a [[parable]] in several respects. A parable is equally an ingenious tale intended to correct manners, but it can be ''true'' in the sense that "when this kind of actual event happens among men, this is what it means and this is how we should think about it", while an apologue, with its introduction of animals and plants, to which it lends ideas, language and emotions, contains only metaphoric truth: "when this kind of situation exists anywhere in the world, here is an interesting truth about it."  The [[parable]] reaches heights to which the apologue cannot aspire, for the points in which animals and nature present analogies to man are principally those of his lower nature (hunger, desire, pain, fear, etc.), and the lessons taught by the apologue seldom therefore reach beyond prudential morality (keep yourself safe, find ease where you can, plan for the future, don't misbehave or you'll eventually be caught and punished), whereas the parable aims at representing the relations between man and existence or higher powers (know your role in the universe, behave well towards all you encounter, kindness and respect are of higher value than cruelty and slander).  It finds its framework in the world of nature as it actually is, and not in any parody of it, and it exhibits real and not fanciful analogies.

The apologue seizes on that which humans have in common with other creatures, and the parable on that which we have in common with a greater existence. Still, in spite of the difference of moral level, [[Martin Luther]] thought so highly of apologues as counselors of virtue that he edited and revised Aesop and wrote a characteristic preface to the volume.<ref>{{harvnb|Chisholm|1911}} for the main text, but the origin of the examples is unclear.</ref>  The parable is always blunt and devoid of subtlety, and requires no interpretation; the apologue by nature necessitates at least some degree of reflection and thought to achieve understanding, and in this sense it demands more of the listener than the parable does.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shonmehta.com/2017/01/calamity.html|title=Calamity|website=www.shonmehta.com|access-date=2017-03-14}}</ref>

Some commentators have attempted to relegate the apologue in literary and artistic importance. As [[René Wellek]] observes, [[Hegel]] in his ''Aesthetics'' (mediated to at least some extent by [[Heinrich Gustav Hotho|Hotho]]'s account) consigns the apologue, parable, and proverb, along with the fable, the epigram, the riddle, and all didactic and descriptive poetry as "minor forms" of literature that do not qualify as art at all.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wellek|first=René|title=A History of Modern Criticism, 1750-1950|volume=2, The Romantic Age|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1981|orig-date=1955|quote-page=324|quote=Hegel there discusses the animal fable, the parable, the proverb, the apologue, the riddle, the epigram, and didactic and descriptive poetry. It is denied that these minor forms are art...}}</ref><ref name=Hegel>{{cite book|last=Hegel|first=G.W.F.|translator=T.M. Knox|title=Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art|publisher=[[Clarendon Press]], [[Oxford]]|year=1975|volume=1|chapter=3, A.2|pages=390–392}}</ref>