Again said Ioasaph, "The Lord God prosper thee, O thou Wisest of men!
For thou hast gladdened my soul with thine apt and excellent sayings.
Wherefore sketch me yet another picture of the vanity of the world, and
how a man may pass through it in peace and safety."
Barlaam took up his parable and said, "Hear then a similitude of this
matter too. I once heard tell of a great city whose citizens had, from
old time, the custom of taking some foreigner and stranger, who knew
nothing of their laws and traditions, and of making him their king, to
enjoy absolute power, and follow his own will and pleasure without
hindrance, until the completion of a year. Then suddenly, while he was
living with never a care in rioting and wantonness, without fear, and
alway supposing that his reign would only terminate with his life, they
would rise up against him, strip him bare of his royal robes, lead him
in triumph up and down the city, and thence dispatch him beyond their
borders into a distant great island; there, for lack of food and
raiment, in hunger and nakedness he would waste miserably away, the
luxury and pleasure so unexpectedly showered upon him changed as
unexpectedly into woe. In accordance therefore with the unbroken
custom of these citizens, a certain man was ordained to the kingship.
But his mind was fertile of understanding, and he was not carried away
by this sudden access of prosperity, nor did he emulate the
heedlessness of the kings that had gone before him, and had been
miserably expelled, but his soul was plunged in care and trouble how he
might order his affairs well. After long and careful search, he
learned from a wise counsellor the custom of the citizens, and the
place of perpetual banishment, and was taught of him without guile how
to ensure himself against this fate. So with this knowledge that
within a very little while he must reach that island and leave to
strangers this chance kingdom among strangers, he opened the treasures
whereof he had awhile absolute and unforbidden use, and took a great
store of money and huge masses of gold and silver and precious stones
and delivered the same to trusty servants and sent them before him to
the island whither he was bound. When the appointed year came to an
end, the citizens rose against him, and sent him naked into banishment
like those that went before him. But while the rest of these foolish
kings, kings only for a season, were sore anhungred, he, that had
timely deposited his wealth, passed his time in continual plenty mid
dainties free of expense, and, rid of all fear of those mutinous and
evil citizens, could count himself happy on his wise forethought.
"Understand thou, therefore, that the city is this vain and deceitful
world; that the citizens are the principalities and powers of the
devils, the rulers of the darkness of this world, who entice us by the
soft bait of pleasure, and counsel us to consider corruptible and
perishable things as incorruptible, as though the enjoyment that cometh
from them were co-existent with us, and immortal as we. Thus then are
we deceived; we have taken no thought concerning the things which are
abiding and eternal, and have laid up in store for ourselves no
treasure for that life beyond, when of a sudden there standeth over us
the doom of death. Then, then at last do those evil and cruel citizens
of darkness, that received us, dispatch us stript of all worldly
goods,--for all our time has been wasted on their service--and carry us
off 'to a dark land and a gloomy, to a land of eternal darkness, where
there is no light, nor can one behold the life of men.' As for that
good counsellor, who made known all the truth and taught that sagacious
and wise king the way of salvation, understand thou that I, thy poor
and humble servant, am he, who am come hither for to shew thee the good
and infallible way to lead thee to things eternal and unending, and to
counsel thee to lay up all thy treasure there; and I am come to lead
thee away from the error of this world, which, to my woe, I also loved,
and clave to its pleasures and delights. But, when I perceived, with
the unerring eyes of my mind how all human life is wasted in these
things that come and go; when I saw that no man hath aught that is
stable and steadfast, neither the rich in his wealth, nor the mighty in
his strength, nor the wise in his wisdom, nor the prosperous in his
prosperity, nor the luxurious in his wantonness, nor he that dreameth
of security of life in that vain and feeble security of his dreams, nor
any man in any of those things that men on earth commend ('tis like the
boundless rush of torrents that discharge themselves into the deep sea,
thus fleeting and temporary are all present things); then, I say, I
understood that all such things are vanity, and that their enjoyment is
naught; and, that even as the past is all buried in oblivion, be it
past glory, or past kingship, or the splendour of rank, or amplitude of
power, or arrogance of tyranny, or aught else like them, so also
present things will vanish in the darkness of the days to come. And,
as I am myself of the present, I also shall doubtless be subject to its
accustomed change; and, even as my fathers before me were not allowed
to take delight for ever in the present world, so also shall it be with
me. For I have observed how this tyrannical and troublesome world
treateth mankind, shifting men hither and thither, from wealth to
poverty, and from poverty to honour, carrying some out of life and
bringing others in, rejecting some that are wise and understanding,
making the honourable and illustrious dishonoured and despised, but
seating others who are unwise and of no understanding upon a throne of
honour, and making the dishonoured and obscure to be honoured of all.
"One may see how the race of mankind may never abide before the face of
the cruel tyranny of the world. But, as when a dove fleeing from an
eagle or a hawk flitteth from place to place, now beating against this
tree, now against that bush, and then anon against the clefts of the
rocks and all manner of bramble-thorns, and, nowhere finding any safe
place of refuge, is wearied with continual tossing and crossing to and
fro, so are they which are flustered by the present world. They labour
painfully under unreasoning impulse, on no sure or firm bases: they
know not to what goal they are driving, nor whither this vain life
leadeth them this vain life, whereto they have in miserable folly
subjected themselves, choosing evil instead of good, and pursuing vice
instead of goodness; and they know not who shall inherit the cold
fruits of their many heavy labours, whether it be a kinsman or a
stranger, and, as oft times it haps, not even a friend or acquaintance
at all, but an enemy and foeman.
"On all these things, and others akin to them, I held judgement in the
tribunal of my soul, and I came to hate my whole life that had been
wasted in these vanities, while I still lived engrossed in earthly
things. But when I had put off from my soul the lust thereof, and cast
it from me, then was there revealed unto me the true good, to fear God
and do his will; for this I saw to be the sum of all good. This also
is called the beginning of wisdom, and perfect wisdom. For life is
without pain and reproach to those that hold by her, and safe to those
who lean upon her as upon the Lord. So, when I had set my reason on
the unerring way of the commandments of the Lord, and had surely
learned that there is nothing froward or perverse therein, and that it
is not full of chasms and rocks, nor of thorns and thistles, but lieth
altogether smooth and even, rejoicing the eyes of the traveller with
the brightest sights, making beautiful his feet, and shoeing them with
'the preparation of the Gospel of peace,' that he may walk safely and
without delay, this way, then, I rightly chose above all others, and
began to rebuild my soul's habitation, which had fallen into ruin and
decay.
"In such wise was I devising mine estate, and establishing mine
unstable mind, when I heard the words of a wise teacher calling loudly
to me thus, 'Come ye out,' said he, 'all ye that will to be saved. Be
ye separate from the vanity of the world, for the fashion thereof
quickly passeth away, and behold it shall not be. Come ye out, without
turning back, not for nothing and without reward, but winning supplies
for travelling to life eternal, for ye are like to journey a long road,
needing much supplies from hence, and ye shall arrive at the place
eternal that hath two regions, wherein are many mansions; one of which
places God hath prepared for them that love him and keep his
commandments, full of all manner of good things; and they that attain
thereto shall live for ever in incorruption, enjoying immortality
without death, where pain and sorrow and sighing are fled away. But
the other place is full of darkness and tribulation and pain, prepared
for the devil and his angels, wherein also shall be cast they who by
evil deeds have deserved it, who have bartered the incorruptible and
eternal for the present world, and have made themselves fuel for
eternal fire.'
"When I heard this voice, and recognized the truth, I did my diligence
to attain to that abode, that is free from all pain and sorrow, and
full of security and all good things, whereof I have knowledge now only
in part, being but a babe in my spiritual life, and seeing the sights
yonder as through mirrors and riddles; but when that which is perfect
is come, and I shall see face to face, then that which is in part shall
be done away. Wherefore I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord; for
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and of death, and hath opened mine eyes to see clearly
that the will of the flesh is death, but the will of the Spirit is life
and peace. And even as I did discern the vanity of present things and
hate them with a perfect hatred, so likewise I counsel thee to decide
thereon, that thou mayest treat them as something alien and quickly
passing away, and mayest remove all thy store from earth and lay up for
thyself in the incorruptible world a treasure that can not be stolen,
wealth inexhaustible, in that place whither thou must shortly fare,
that when thou comest thither thou mayest not be destitute, but be
laden with riches, after the manner of that aptest of parables that I
lately showed thee."