The Good Book (11 page)

20. ‘Well,’ said the hyena, disconsolate, ‘what am I to do? You are right: she will be angry, and might eat me instead of you.’

21. ‘I would not like that to happen to you,’ said the monkey kindly. ‘If you wait here I will hasten home and get my heart, and then I will have it with me when we reach the crocodile’s wife.’

22. ‘That’s very kind,’ said the hyena, most gratefully, and opened his jaws to let the monkey down.

23. The monkey leaped up into the trees, laughing again and even more loudly; and bade the hyena farewell.

24. ‘There are many morals in this tale,’ Charicles said, ‘but one that always occurs to me is that the politician who takes your vote is like the monkey who promises to fetch his heart;  

25. ‘Once he has your vote and is in office, he is like the monkey who has tricked you and leaped into the tree;

26. ‘But the one difference is, you discover that he has no heart at all.’

Chapter 18

  1. With such stories the day’s journey of Charicles and the stranger was beguiled. They rode through meadows of anemone, cyclamen, daffodil and iris,

  2. Knee-deep in long sweet grass, and in the shade of woods thickly studded with oak and terebinth trees;

  3. They rode by the side of streams, and their talk mingled with the sound of waters rushing over stones polished round and clean.

  4. Just as the shadows were lengthening towards the east, and the starlings began to gather in the topmost branches of cedars, Charicles with astonishment noticed something:

  5. That they had ridden out of a wood on a hillside overlooking his own home-town, where three days before the stranger had visited him.

  6. He stopped his ass, and turned open-mouthed to the stranger to seek an explanation for how, all appearance to the contrary, they had ridden in a great circle, and arrived where they had begun.

  7. And just as he did so he woke from the dream, but not before he heard the voice of the stranger say:

  8. ‘This is the country I told you of, when I said, “Come with me to my land and I will show you its happy environs and teach you its lore,”

  9. ‘For here your acquaintances and neighbours do not appreciate worth, nor know wisdom.

10. ‘My country is like a pleasant garden, full of loving people, wise beyond all other people.

11. ‘You are a scholar, and would learn much from what I could show you; it would be for you to bring that wisdom back again, to teach it to your fellows.

12. ‘And now you have seen my country; it exists in our talk; and it exists here in what your own country could be if it could be its best;

13. ‘For all countries are my country if only they would make the effort to be it;

14. ‘And if more such men would dream as you have dreamed today.’

15. At that Charicles came fully awake, and wondered mightily at his dream, which was as clear in his mind as if he dreamed it still.

Chapter 19

  1. The king of the City of Stones was out riding one day when he saw an old man planting a fig tree in a garden.

  2. The king stopped to ask him why he took such pains to plant a tree whose fruit he could in all probability not expect to eat, because of his age.

  3. Said the old man, ‘King, if I do not live long enough to taste the figs from this tree, my sons and their children will certainly do so.’

  4. The king asked, ‘How old are you?’ to which the other replied, ‘Some weeks short of ninety-one.’

  5. The king said, ‘If you live long enough to enjoy the fruit from this tree, be sure to let me know.’

  6. Some years passed, and the king had forgotten this incident, when a page told him one day that an old man wished to present a basket of figs to him.

  7. These words stirred the king’s memory, and he asked for the old man to be brought before him.

  8. Sure enough it was the ancient of the fig tree, who had brought the choicest specimens of the tree’s offering.

  9. The king accepted the gift with gracious words, and made the old man sit beside him as he tasted the figs,

10. Ordering his servants to put a fine cloak on the old man, and to give him a gold coin for every fig in the basket.

11. When the old man had gone the king’s son asked, ‘Father, why did you show such honour to that old man?’

12. And the king replied, ‘He has been honoured by nature twice over: in preserving him to great age, and in providing him with abundance of fruits. Shall I honour him less?’

13. At home in his village the old man told the story of the king’s kindness and generosity. An envious neighbour decided to outdo him, by filling a very large basket with figs and other fruits, and taking them to the king.

14. At the palace door he explained that he had heard of the king’s bounty to the ancient, and wished to have the same reward in proportion, for here was a basket even more numerously filled with fruits.

15. When the king heard this he ordered the grasping man to be pelted with his own fruits, and driven from the palace grounds.

Chapter 20

  1. The king of the City of Stones one day heard two beggars calling out for alms in the street. One cried, ‘Take pity on one less fortunate than yourself!’

  2. And the other cried, ‘Give alms to bring luck to the king and his kingdom!’

  3. Pleased by the second beggar’s attention to his interests, the king told his servants to take a roast fowl down to the street, stuffed with gold coins, and give it to the second beggar.

  4. Now the second beggar was not in want of food, having plenty at home; and was chiefly interested in money.

  5. But the first beggar was truly hungry. The second beggar said to him, ‘I do not want this fowl; you may have it for the coins you have begged today.’

  6. The first beggar said, ‘The coins here are not many, and nowhere near the price of a cooked chicken.’

  7. But the second said, ‘You can have it anyway.’ So they exchanged, and the second beggar went home.

  8. The first beggar was of course vastly the gainer, finding as he satisfied his hunger the money hidden inside the chicken’s carcase.

  9. The next day the same thing happened; and again the first beggar found that he was vastly the gainer,

10. Even though he tried to tell the second beggar what a mistake he was making in selling the king’s gift so cheaply.

11. For the second beggar did not wish to listen to one whom he thought a fool for giving away all his begged coins for a mere chicken.

12. As a result of this good fortune the first beggar had enough money to open a little shop on the street corner.

13. But again the second beggar came, crying out, ‘Give alms to bring luck to the king and his kingdom!’

14. When the king heard the beggar cry out in this way for the third time, he grew impatient. ‘I have given that beggar enough to start a little business of his own,’ he said. ‘Why does he continue to beg outside my palace windows?’

15. So he sent his servants to bring the beggar in, that he might question him. ‘After all I have given you, why do you still beg in the street outside my windows?’ asked the king. ‘Are you so greedy that you cannot be satisfied with what is sent to you?’

16. And the second beggar said, ‘But all I have had is the fowls you gave me, which, not requiring food, I sold for a few pennies to the other beggar who cried in the street with me.’

17. At this the king marvelled, and said, ‘The person who gained was one who asked us to think of the less fortunate;

18. ‘The one who sought only to flatter me did not understand his good fortune.

19. ‘Thus, justice has been done in how matters have here worked out.’

Chapter 21

  1. The king of the City of Stones once disputed with his chamberlain whether more kindness was to be found among poor people than among the rich.

  2. The chamberlain maintained that only those who are well-to-do show kindness and charity, because only they can afford it.

  3. The king, not persuaded by this, summoned a scribe to write down the arguments he and the chamberlain had put forward, and then to lay up the document in a box.

  4. After the chamberlain had departed, the king asked the scribe to accompany him in disguise around the kingdom, to see for themselves which of the king or chamberlain was right.

  5. They walked in the darkness for a long time before seeing a distant light, which they discovered came from a poor goatherd’s hut. There they knocked on the door, and were welcomed by the goatherd and his family, and offered bread and fruit.

  6. The disguised king said, ‘We are wayfarers who have taken a vow to eat only kidneys on our journey.’

  7. Immediately the goatherd went and slaughtered all four of his goats, and removed their kidneys, so that he had something to offer his guests.

  8. The disguised king said, ‘Our vow also precludes us from eating before midnight; so we must travel on.’

  9. So the goatherd lit them to their path with the only lantern in his hut, leaving his wife and daughters for a time in darkness.

10. The king and scribe then made their way to the mansion of the chamberlain, who had grown wealthy in the king’s service;

11. And they found the chamberlain entertaining lavishly, with many guests and much food and wine burdening great tables in his hall.

12. The king and the scribe knocked at the door, and asked if they could have a little food and something to drink.

13. Hearing this the chamberlain strode to the door where they stood and said, ‘Off with you beggars! If you do not leave my premises immediately I will have you whipped and beaten. How dare you trouble your betters!’

14. The next day the king sent his courtiers to bring the goatherd and his family to court, and likewise to summon the chamberlain.

15. He had the scribe take out and read the transcript of his discussion with the chamberlain; and then he and the scribe recounted the occurrences of the night before.

16. The king said to the chamberlain, ‘You who have much were prepared to give nothing to someone who asked for little. The goatherd had very little, but gave it all to someone who asked.

17. ‘This confirms what I argued in our debate: that those with little tend often to be kind because they know what it is to lack means, and they understand that kindness returns on itself in due time.

18. ‘But those who have much grow selfish and inconsiderate, and wish to have nothing to do with people who do not equal them socially and in means.

19. ‘So you yourself have refuted your own argument, and you will now learn not only what the truth is, but what it feels like.’

20. And the king ordered that the goatherd and his family be lodged in the chamberlain’s palace, and the chamberlain in the goatherd’s hut; and recommended the moral of this tale to all who heard it.

Chapter 22

  1. On a day of fair weather and sunshine, Philologus saw his friend Toxophilus strolling in a meadow while intently reading a book, and went to him, saying,

  2. ‘You study too closely, Toxophilus.’ To which the other replied, ‘I study without effort, for the matter pleases and instructs me, which is all delight.’

  3. Said Philologus, ‘We physicians say that it is neither good for the eyes to read in bright sunlight, nor wholesome for the digestion to read so soon after dinner.’

  4. ‘I will never follow physic either in eating or studying,’ said Toxophilus, ‘for if I did I am sure there would be less pleasure in the one, or profit in the other. But what news brings you here?’

  5. ‘No news,’ replied Philologus, ‘just that as I was walking I saw several of our friends go to archery, there to shoot at the butts; but you were not with them.

  6. ‘So I sought you, and found you looking on your book intently; and thought to come and talk with you, lest your book should run away with you.

  7. ‘For by your wavering pace and earnest look I perceived that your book was leading you, not you it.’

  8. ‘There you are right,’ said Toxophilus, ‘For truly my thoughts were going faster than my feet.

  9. ‘I am reading a treatise of the mind, which says how well-feathered minds fly true and high, while those with moulted and drooping feathers sink always to base things.’

10. Said Philologus, ‘I remember the passage well; it is wonderfully expressed. And now I see it is no marvel that your feet failed you, for your well-feathered thought was flying so fast.’

11. ‘So it was. But perhaps I should go now and practise archery,’ said Toxophilus, ‘for you put me in mind of a different duty;

12. ‘It is a fair day for exercise, and it is as necessary to mingle pastimes with study for the mind’s health, as eating and sleeping are for the body’s health.

13. ‘Aristotle himself says that although it were a fond and childish thing to be always at play, yet play may be used for the sake of earnest matter too;