~ Eastern Tale ~

By virtue of the employment of Eastern Tale to didactic purposes, the highly suspect manner in which Eastern Tales gratuitously aroused the imagination was, for the most part forgiven. However, in the minds of many critics, this provocative and popular genre could not compete with forms more grounded in daily life. Sarah Trimmer, one such critic, saw the use of Eastern Tale to propagate Christian teaching was a degradation of the majesty of the Heavens; rather, the message of God need only be read in its "own original form, the written Word of God."¹⁹