The Good Book (7 page)

  9. And let us live by what reason and the right teach, without delay.

10. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

Chapter 21

  1. The characteristic of the unwise is, that they never expect either benefit or hurt from themselves, but from externals.

  2. The condition and characteristic of the wise is that they expect all hurt and benefit from themselves.

  3. The marks of the wise are, that they censure no one, praise where it is due, blame no one, accuse no one, say nothing concerning themselves as being anybody, or knowing anything:

  4. When they are, in any instance, hindered or limited, they blame only themselves; if they are praised, they take it with modesty and proportion; if censured, they make no defence.

  5. But they go about with the caution of sick or injured people, careful not to move anything that is set right, intent on putting right what is wrong.

  6. When anyone shows himself overly confident in ability to understand and interpret the teachings of the sages, say,

  7. ‘Unless the sages taught obscurely, this person would have had no subject for his vanity.

  8. ‘But what do I desire? To understand nature and follow her. I ask, then, who interprets her, and, finding someone who does, I have recourse to his teaching.

  9. ‘If I do not understand his writings, I seek one to explain them.’ So far there is nothing to value myself upon.

10. And when I find a teacher, what remains is to make use of his instructions. This alone is the valuable thing.

11. But, if I admire nothing but merely the teaching, what do I become more than a grammarian instead of a philosopher?

12. I blush when I cannot show my actions agreeable and consonant to the teachings of the good.

13. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

Chapter 22

  1. Whatever moral rules you have proposed to yourself after careful thought, abide by them as if they were laws.

  2. Do not regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours, unless it is to your benefit to learn from it.

  3. How long, then, will you put off thinking yourself worthy of the highest improvements and follow the distinctions of reason?

  4. What other master, then, do you wait for, to throw upon that the delay of reforming yoursel
f
? You are no longer a child, but an adult.

  5. If, therefore, you will be negligent and slothful, and always add procrastination to procrastination, purpose to purpose, and delay day after day until you will attend to yourself,

  6. You will insensibly continue without proficiency, and, living and dying, persevere in being one of the thoughtless.

  7. This instant, then, think yourself worthy of living as a grown-up. Let whatever is the best be your law.

  8. And if any instance of pain or pleasure, of glory or disgrace, is set before you, remember that now is the combat, now the struggle, nor can it be put off.

  9. And though you are not yet a Socrates, you ought to live as one desirous of becoming a Socrates, who said, ‘The life most worth living is the life considered and chosen.’

10. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

11. And the great lesson that the end of each day teaches is that wisdom and the freedom it brings must daily be won anew.

Parables

Chapter 1

  1. A rich king named Plousios had planted a forest for his sport, and made an edict forbidding anyone to trespass in it.

  2. Out hunting one day he came across a hut that a beggar named Penicros had built there, in violation of the edict.

  3. In anger Plousios ordered Penicros to be hanged, and his hut destroyed; but Penicros said, ‘If you hang me before you hear my wisdom, you will always regret it.’

  4. ‘What makes you think you are wise?’ asked Plousios, and Penicros answered, ‘Because I have built my lodging in Plousios’ forest,

  5. ‘And in consequence have met him; which I wished to do, as having counsel to offer him.’

  6. Amused by the temerity of this answer, Plousios ordered Penicros to be placed on a donkey and brought back with them to the city; and on the way questioned him.

  7. ‘Tell me the difference between a good man and a bad man,’ said Plousios.

  8. Penicros answered, ‘A bad man quarrelled with a good man, saying “For every word of abuse I hear from you, I will retort ten.”

  9. ‘The good man replied, “For every ten words of abuse I hear from you, I will not retort one.”

10. ‘That is the difference between a bad man and a good; and between a foolish man and a wise.’

11. Impressed by this answer, Plousios asked, ‘Is it true that in both man and nature all things grow with time?’

12. And Penicros answered, ‘There is one thing that does not; and that is grief.’

13. Plousios said, ‘We are told to take care who we send with our messages. Why is that so?’

14. Penicros answered, ‘Because the character of the sent tells the character of the sender.’

15. Plousios asked, ‘Each animal has its colour, its spots or stripes, to conceal itself in the forest. What is the best method of concealment for man?’ Penicros answered, ‘Speech.’

16. Plousios asked, ‘What kind of man is the worst among men?’ Penicros answered, ‘He who is good in his own esteem.’

17. Plousios asked, ‘Would it not be sweet if a king’s reign lasted for ever?’ Penicros answered, ‘If that had been the lot of your father, where would you be now?’

18. Plousios said, ‘Levellers say there is no difference between nobles and commoners. Is that true?’

19. And Penicros answered, ‘There was once a nobleman who spoke contemptuously to a poor scholar, who replied in courteous terms.

20. ‘After this had continued for some time, the scholar at last remarked, “It seems that your noble line ends with you, while mine might be beginning with me.”

21. ‘And again: a man of high birth spoke abusively to a wise man of lowly birth. “You say that my lineage is a blot on me,” said the sage, “but you are a blot on yours.”’

22. And Penicros said, ‘Death is the dread of the rich and the hope of the poor. A story shows us a deeper truth about the difference between noble and commoner, rich and poor:

23. ‘One like Plousios and one like Penicros were once travelling together, and were set upon by thieves.

24. ‘“Woe is me,” said he who was like Plousios, “if they recognise me.” “Woe is me,” said he who was like Penicros, “if they do not recognise me.”

25. ‘And again: the heir of a wealthy man squandered his money, and a poor sage saw him eating bread and salted olives.

26. ‘He said to the impoverished heir, “Had you thought that this might be your food, this would not be your food.”

27. ‘Such are the differences. As man and man, woman and woman, there is not – neither ought there to be – any difference between any two people in the eyes of a king or judge, for there is no difference between them in nature.’

28. Plousios asked, ‘Why do we die?’ And Penicros answered, ‘Because we live.’

29. Plousios asked Penicros about enemies and friends, and Penicros answered, ‘Rather a wise enemy than a foolish friend.’

30. Plousios asked, ‘Is it ever right to tell a lie?’ And Penicros answered, ‘In three cases lying is permissible: in war, in reconciling man to man, and in appeasing one’s spouse.

31. ‘And more generally, it has been well said that it does an injury to tell an untimely truth.’

32. Plousios said, ‘You are not a beggar but a wise man.’ And Penicros answered, ‘Indeed; for it is you who have been the beggar, asking wisdom from me.

33. ‘In life reason is the pilot, law is the light it steers by, wisdom is knowing that the law comes from nature; and reason is nature’s gift to man.

34. ‘Man has neither claws to fight with nor a furred pelt to abide the winter, but may rule the clawed and furred if he will.’

35. Plousios said, ‘For what you have taught me today, tell me what you would have as a reward.’

36. To which Penicros replied, ‘It is said of Diogenes the philosopher that when Emperor Alexander spoke to him as he lay in his barrel, offering him rewards, he answered, “Yes, you may reward me, by standing out of my sunlight.”

37. ‘But I will indeed accept a reward from you: allow me to build a hut in your forest, and to live there in peace.’

38. And Plousios, who that same day had ordered Penicros to be hanged for building a hut in his forest, granted him permission to live there ever afterwards.

39. Such is the recompense of wisdom.

Chapter 2

  1. A man called Charicles, a scholar who lived in former times in the city of five gates and ten towers, told of a dream he once had,

  2. In which he was woken from his afternoon sleep by a stranger carrying a basket of food,

  3. Containing a round crusted loaf of bread, the white cheese of goat’s milk, bunches of sweet grapes, and a flask of wine, red as rubies.

  4. The stranger invited him saying, ‘Come eat my bread and cheese, and drink the ruby-red wine with me, as if we were sons of the same mother.’

  5. And the stranger carried a lit lamp, even though it was daylight and the sun cast its beams into every corner of the house.

  6. Charicles pointed at the basket and asked the stranger, ‘What are these things, and why are you offering them to me?’

  7. The stranger replied, ‘They are my wine, my bread and cheese, and my sweet grapes; come, eat with me, and drink, and we will be as if sons of the same mother.’

  8. But Charicles said, ‘I cannot eat until I have washed my face and hands, because sleep still hangs heavily on me in this afternoon heat.’

  9. ‘Wash,’ said the stranger, ‘if you will; then come eat my bread and grapes with me, and drink the ruby-red wine.’

10. So Charicles washed, and set himself down with the stranger, and began to eat;

11. And he ate some of the bread and cheese, and the grapes, but he declined to drink the wine.

12. ‘Why will you not taste my wine?’ asked the stranger. ‘It is from my own vineyard, and the grapes were crushed by my own feet.’

13. ‘I could not drink your wine,’ said Charicles, ‘or any wine. It blinds the eyes, robs the mind of wisdom and the body of strength, reveals the secrets of friends, and raises dissension between brothers.’

14. At this the stranger smiled. ‘Why do you blaspheme against wine,’ he said, ‘and believe these falsehoods about it?

15. ‘Wine brings joy; it chases away sorrow, strengthens the sentiments, makes hearts generous, prolongs pleasure, defers old age, and brings a shine to the face and brightness to the senses.

16. ‘Wine is life, and has the sweetness in it of the best of life; it takes the veils of everyday concerns from the eyes so that one can see life’s promises.’

17. ‘Well,’ Charicles said, ‘perhaps you are right; and after I have finished eating, and taken some water, I will try a little of your wine.’

18. So after Charicles finished eating, and had taken some water, he accepted a goblet from the stranger in which the ruby-red wine gleamed, and round the rim of which the small bubbles gathered.

19. But he did not put the goblet to his lips; he held it in his hand as if to drink, and asked the stranger, ‘Where are you from?’

20. The stranger said, ‘I come from a distant land, from pleasant and fruitful hills. Its knowledge and wisdom is greater than in your country, and so are its laws.

21. ‘Come with me to my land and I will show you its happy environs and teach you its lore, for here your acquaintances and neighbours do not appreciate worth, nor know wisdom.

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

23. ‘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.’

24. But Charicles said, still holding the undrunk wine in his hand, ‘I cannot accompany you there; here my neighbours are good, and bear me on the wings of their love; when I die, they will make my death sweet and bury me with songs.

25. ‘I fear you, truly I do; you are a stranger, and one who has come unbidden; I am afraid to trust you.

26. ‘If this seems unfriendly of me, forgive me; but it is explained by the tale of the fox and the leopard. Do you know it? Then I will tell it to you.’

27. And Charicles told the following tale.

Chapter 3

  1. A fox once lived near a leopard in a land of such plenty that the leopard always had as much as he needed to eat, as well for himself as for his wife the leopardess, and their young; and therefore the fox felt safe.

  2. But although the fox and leopard were friends and good neighbours, the fox knew that if dearth came, and the plenty ceased, he might end as prey for the leopard himself; for hunger ends friendships, and necessity brings great changes.