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Page 14
"Ah! Amaranth, dear," he sighed, "could you but feel, as I do, a certain
pain which, whilst it tears the heart, is so delightful that it
enchants, you would say that nothing under heaven is its equal. Let me
tell you of it. Believe me, trust me. Would I deceive you? You, for whom
I am filled with the tenderest sentiments the heart can feel!"
"And what, my Thyrsis, is the name you give this pleasing pain?"
"It is called love," said Thyrsis.
"Ah!" responded the maiden, "that is a beautiful name. Tell me by what
signs I may know it, if it come to me. What are the feelings it gives
one?"
Thyrsis, taking heart of grace, replied with much ardour: "One feels an
anguish beside which the joys of kings are but dull and insipid. One
forgets oneself, and takes pleasure in the solitudes of the woods. To
glance into a brook is to see, not oneself, but an ever-haunting image.
To any other form one's eyes are blind. It may be that there is a
shepherd in the village at whose voice, at the mention of whose name,
you will blush; at the thought of whom you will sigh. Why, one knows
not! To see him will be a burning desire, and yet you would shrink from
him."
"Oho!" said Amaranth. "Is this then the pain you have preached so much!
It is hardly new to me. I seem to know something of it." The heart of
Thyrsis leapt, for he thought that at last he had gained his end; when
the fair one added, "'Tis just in this way that I feel for Cladimant!"
Imagine the vexation and misery of poor Thyrsis!
How many like him, intending to work solely for themselves, prove only
to have been stepping stones for others.
XIX
THE RAT AND THE ELEPHANT
(BOOK VIII.--No. 15)
An uncommonly small rat was watching an uncommonly big elephant and
sneering at the slowness of his steps.
The enormous animal was heavily laden. On his back rose a three-storied
howdah, wherein were accommodated a celebrated sultana, her dog, her
cat, her monkey, her parrot, her old servant, and all her household.
They were going upon a pilgrimage.
The rat wondered why all the people should express astonishment at
seeing this enormous bulk--"As if the fact of occupying more or less
space implied that one was the more or less important accordingly! What
is it you admire in him, you men? If it is only the weight of his body
which fills the children with terror, then we rats, small as we are,
consider ourselves not one grain less than the elephant." He would have
said more; but the cat, bounding out of her cage, let him see in an
instant that a rat is not an elephant.
XX
THE HOROSCOPE
(BOOK VIII.--No. 16)
Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it.
A father had an only son whom he loved excessively. His devoted
affection caused him to be so anxious as to the boy's welfare that he
sought to learn from astrologers and fortune-tellers what fate was in
store for the son and heir. One of these soothsayers told him that an
especial danger lay with lions, from which the youth must be guarded
until the age of twenty was reached, but not after. The father, to make
sure of this precaution, upon the issue of which depended the life of
his loved one, commanded that by no chance should the boy ever be
permitted to go beyond the threshold of the house. Ample provision was
made for the satisfaction of all the wishes proper to youth in the way
of play with his companions, jumping, running, walking, and so forth. As
the age approached when the spirits of youth yearn for the chase, he was
taught to hold that sport in abhorrence.
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