An old acquaintance of ours, as remarkable for the grotesque queerness of
his physiognomy, as for the kindness and gentleness of his disposition,
was asked by a friend, where he had been? He replied, he had been seeing
the lion, which was at that time an object of curiosity--(we are not sure
whether it was _Nero_ or _Cato_.) "And what," rejoined the querist, "did
the lion think of you?" The jest passed as a good one; and yet under it
lies something that is serious and true.
* * * * *
The possibility of a great change being introduced by very slight
beginnings may be illustrated by the tale which Lockman tells of a vizier
who, having offended his master, was condemned to perpetual captivity in a
lofty tower. At night his wife came to weep below his window. "Cease your
grief," said the sage; "go home for the present, and return hither when
you have procured a live black-beetle, together with a little _ghee_, (or
buffalo's butter.) three clews, one of the finest silk, another of stout
packthread, and another of whip-cord; finally, a stout coil of rope."--
When she again came to the foot of the tower, provided according to her
husband's commands, he directed her to touch the head of the insect with a
little of the _ghee_, to tie one end of the silk thread around him, and to
place the reptile on the wall of the tower. Seduced by the smell of the
butter, which he conceived to be in store somewhere above him, the beetle
continued to ascend till he reached the top, and thus put the vizier in
possession of the end of the silk thread, who drew up the packthread by
means of the silk, the small cord by means of the packthread, and, by
means of the cord, a stout rope capable of sustaining his own weight,--and
so at last escaped from the place of his duresse.
* * * * *