4. The foregoing examples exhibit a species of composition, which uniting just and natural sentiments with simplicity of expression, preserves at the same time a considerable portion of elevation and dignity. But there is another species of composition, which, possessing the same union of natural sentiments with simplicity of expression, is essentially distinguished from the former by its always partaking, in a considerable degree, of comic humour. This is that kind of writing which the French characterise by the term naif, and for which we have no perfectly corresponding expression in English. “Le naif,” says Fontenelle, “est une nuance du bas.”
In the following fable of Phædrus, there is a naïveté, which I think it is scarcely possible to transfuse into any translation:
Inops potentem dum vult imitari, perit.
In prato quædam rana conspexit bovem;
Et tacta invidiâ tantæ magnitudinis
Rugosam inflavit pellem: tum natos suos
Interrogavit, an bove esset latior.
Illi negarunt. Rursus intendit cutem
Majore nisu, et simili quæsivit modo
Quis major esset? Illi dixerunt, bovem.