The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [33]
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,