A DOUBT CONCERNING THE USES OF PHILOSOPHY.
_El comienzo de salud
es el saber,
distinguir y conocer
qual es virtud._
PROVERBIOS DEL MARQUES DE SANTILLANA.
That grave reply produced a short pause. It was broken by the boy, who
said returning to the subject, “I have been thinking, Father, that it
is not a good thing to be a Philosopher.”
“And what, my Son, has led thee to that thought?”
“What I have read at the end of the Dictionary, Father. There was one
Philosopher that was pounded in a mortar.”
“That Daniel,” said the Father, “could neither have been the
Philosopher's fault nor his choice.”
“But it was because he was a Philosopher, my lad,” said Guy, “that he
bore it so bravely, and said, beat on, you can only bruise the shell
of Anaxarchus! If he had not been a Philosopher they might have
pounded him just the same, but they would never have put him in the
Dictionary. Epictetus in like manner bore the torments which his
wicked master inflicted upon him, without a groan, only saying, ‘take
care, or you will break my leg;’ and when the leg was broken, he
looked the wretch in the face and said, ‘I told you you would break
it.’”
“But,” said the youngster, “there was one Philosopher who chose to
live in a tub; and another who that he might never again see any thing
to withdraw his mind from meditation, put out his eyes by looking upon
a bright brass basin, such as I cured my warts in.”
“He might have been a wise man,” said William Dove, “but not wondrous
wise: for if he had, he would not have used the basin to put his eyes
out. He would have jumped into a quickset hedge, and scratched them
out, like the Man of our Town; because when he saw his eyes were out,
he might then have jumped into another hedge and scratched them in
again. The Man of our Town was the greatest philosopher of the two.”
“And there was one,” continued the boy, “who had better have blinded
himself at once, for he did nothing else but cry at every thing he
saw. Was not this being very foolish?”
“I am sure,” says William, “it was not being merry and wise.”
“There was another who said that hunger was his daily food.”
“He must have kept such a table as Duke Humphrey,” quoth William; “I
should not have liked to dine with him.”
“Then there was Crates,” said the persevering boy; “he had a good
estate and sold it and threw the money into the sea, saying, ‘away ye
paltry cares! I will drown you, that you may not drown me.’”
“I should like to know,” quoth William, “what the overseers said to
that chap, when he applied to the parish for support.”
“They sent him off to Bedlam, I suppose,” said the Mother, “it was the
fit place for him, poor creature.”
“And when Aristippus set out upon a journey he bade his servants throw
away all their money, that they might travel the better. Why they must
have begged their way, and it cannot be right to beg if people are not
brought to it by misfortune. And there were some who thought there was
no God. I am sure they were fools, for the Bible says so.”
“Well Daniel,” said Guy, “thou hast studied the end of the Dictionary
to some purpose!”
“And the Bible too, Master Guy!” said Dinah,—her countenance
brightening with joy at her son's concluding remark.
“It's the best part of the book,” said the boy, replying to his
schoolmaster; “there are more entertaining and surprizing things there
than I ever read in any other place, except in my Father's book about
Pantagruel.”