The Good Book Page 8

  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;

  14. ‘And as rest is the antidote of labour, so play is the relief of study and business.’

  15. ‘And I have heard it said,’ Philologus replied, ‘that study is like husbandry, in which we till the ground and sow with seed to reap thereafter;

  16. ‘For I heard myself a good husbandman at his book once say, that to rest from study some time of the day and some time of the year, made as much for the increase of learning as to let the land lie fallow for a season.’

  17. Thus persuaded, Toxophilus went with his friend to the butts to shoot arrows as well-feathered as Plato’s thoughts; and by that rest and diversion found refreshment for his mind.

  Chapter 23

  1. One evening, when the old woman’s grandchildren demanded a story, she asked them,

  2. ‘Have you heard about the sisters who hunted deer in the clouds and caught the wind in a net?’ They shook their heads.

  3. So she pointed at the space under a tree which served as the village school, and said,

  4. ‘When I was a child there was no school here, and never had been.

  5. ‘One day a foreigner was brought to the village by some of our men.

  6. ‘They had found him lying injured in the forest, where he had fallen from a tree trying to catch butterflies.

  7. ‘My uncle was our medicine man, and he mended his bones and brought him back to health.

  8. ‘As he recovered he spent many hours talking to my uncle about the country he came from. And my mother’s youngest sister sat listening from the next room.

  9. ‘There in that other country, the foreigner said, not only boys but girls go to school, and learn to read books, and thereby come to know many things,

  10. ‘And as a result they do many things, and some of them travel the world to learn even more, as he himself had done.

  11. ‘My mother’s sister grew thoughtful. When it was time for the foreigner to leave, she told her family,

  12. ‘“I want to go to this man’s country to learn to read, if he will take me.”

  13. ‘The family said that it would be easier to hunt deer among the clouds and catch the wind in a net than to leave the village and travel far and learn to read.

  14. ‘But the foreigner said there were towns in the distant lowlands of our own country where she could do just such a thing.

  15. ‘Oh what discussion and argument there was about it! But my mother’s youngest sister was determined, and at last the family agreed.

  16. ‘So when the foreigner left, accompanied by some of our men to show him to the edge of the forest, she went with him,

  17. ‘And her next eldest sister was sent with her as chaperone.

  18. ‘There was sorrow at their departure in the whole village, and some criticism that our family had let them go,

  19. ‘Not least for such a reason, which many were sceptical about; and no one thought to see either of the sisters again.

  20. ‘But they returned several years later, to the great excitement of all; and they were full of wonderful stories about what they had seen and done.

  21. ‘Moreover they could read, and they read marvels to us from books they had brought with them;

  22. ‘And the people of the village passed the books from one to another,

  23. ‘Looking in awe at the marks that covered every part of them, and wondering at the mystery they contained.

  24. ‘And the sisters said they would start a school, and teach anyone in the village who wished to read, and especially the children.

  25. ‘But the headman said they might as well sow cornseed in the treetops and build huts out of water,

  26. ‘For where would they get what was needed to build and furnish a school such as the women had seen during their travels?

  27. ‘So my mother’s youngest sister opened one of the books at a certain page,

  28. ‘And read out a passage to the headman and the whole village, which was part of a story and went as follows:

  29. ‘“A young woman rose from her seat in the middle of the crowded hall where everyone was discussing how this thing should be done,

  30. ‘“And she addressed the men on the platform, saying,

  31. ‘“‘When a plan is laid, men always say, “Where shall we get the wherewithal?”


  32. ‘“‘But women say, “What have we already got available?”’”

  33. ‘And immediately the whole village saw that they had a school in any space under a tree, and stones to sit on,

  34. ‘And two teachers in my mother’s sisters, and books in their hands that they had brought with them.

  35. ‘Now,’ the old woman concluded, again pointing down the lane to the tree, ‘You can see what their teaching has already done:

  36. ‘The space under that tree has become a school-house, and into it all the world comes through the pages of the books,

  37. ‘And the past and future gather round you when you and your teacher are sitting there.

  38. ‘So the sisters hunted deer in the clouds, and caught the wind in a net;

  39. ‘And they planted cornseeds in the treetops, and they have grown; and built huts out of water, stronger than huts of wood.’

  Concord

  Chapter 1

  1. Fannius said to Laelius, ‘Since you have mentioned the word friendship, and we are at leisure,

  2. ‘You would be doing us a great kindness, Laelius, if you would tell us what you mean by it, for you are famous for your friendships,

  3. ‘And before now have spoken so eloquently about their importance to us and to the possibility of good lives.’

  4. Laelius replied: ‘I should certainly have no objection if I felt confidence in myself, Fannius,

  5. ‘For the theme of friendship is a noble one, and we are indeed at leisure;

  6. ‘But who am I to speak of this? What ability do I have? What you propose is a task for philosophers;

  7. ‘For a set discourse on friendship, and an analysis of its meaning, you must go to them.’

  8. To which Fannius said, ‘But you have much practical experience in friendship, and are accounted the best of friends by your friends;

  9. ‘Surely this is the best qualification to speak of so important a relationship?

  10. ‘Not least, Laelius, is the fact that your great friendship with Scipio is the subject almost of legend; and from its example we all wish to learn.’