Chapter IV. That it Will Be Necessary to Deliver the First Introductory Lessons to Children in the Form of Fables. From the Second Book of The Republic

[P] [1] ‘THERE are two kinds of stories, the one true, and the other false?

‘Yes.

‘And we must instruct children in both, and in the false first?

‘I do not understand, said he, what you mean.

‘Do you not understand, said I, that what we first tell children is a fable? And this, I suppose, is, generally speaking, fiction, though there is also some truth in it. And we use fables with children earlier than gymnastics.

‘That is true.’

So Plato writes. And among the Hebrews also it is the custom to teach the histories of the inspired Scriptures to those of infantine souls in a very simple way just like any fables, but to teach those of a trained mental habit the more profound and doctrinal views of the histories by means of the so-called Deuterosis and explanation of the thoughts that are unknown to the multitude.