Whether in these pictures there be any truth worth the implying, every reader must judge for himself; and if he doubt or deny that there be any such truth, still, in the process of thought which the doubt or denial enforces, he may chance on a truth which it pleases himself to discover.
"Most of the Fables of AEsop,"-- thus says Montaigne in his charming essay "Of Books"(7)--"have several senses and meanings, of which the Mythologists choose some one that tallies with the fable.
But for the most part 't is only what presents itself at the first view, and is superficial; there being others more lively, essential, and internal, into which they had not been able to penetrate; and"-- adds Montaigne--"the case is the very same with me." (1) OEuvres inedites de Maine de Biran, vol.i.See introduction.
(2) OEuvres inedites de Maine de Biran, vol.iii.p.

546 (Anthropologie).
(3) OEuvres inedites de Maine de Biran, vol.iii.p.

524.
(4) "The Golden Ass" of Apuleius.
(5) Sir William Hamilton: Lectures on Metaphysics, p.

40.
(6) Jacobi: Von der Gottlichen Dingen; Werke, p.

424-426.
(7) Translation, 1776, Yol.ii.p.