The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [30]
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