Ap'ologue

Ap'ologue, a fable, parable, or short allegorical story, intended to serve as a pleasant vehicle for some moral doctrine. One of the best known apologues is that by Jotham, as given in the Book of Judges (ix. 7-15). Another is that of the 'Belly and the Members,' related by the patrician Menenius Agrippa, in the second book of Livy. The name is applied more particularly to a story in which the actors or speakers are animals or inanimate things. It is identical with the classical fable, though it may perhaps be somewhat more complex and sustained than is possible in this form. The New Testament parable is a simpler kind of apologue, the incidents of which are necessarily probable. Æsop's fables have enjoyed a world-wide reputation. Luther held such an opinion of the value of the apologue as a vehicle of moral truth, that he edited a revised Æsop, for which he wrote a characteristic preface.