Part 27 (1/2)
Therefore he said, with grave deliberation,
”You are wrong, my friends. The world is hollow, like the sh.e.l.l of a cocoanut, and we are all inside the sh.e.l.l. The sky above us is the roof, and if you go out upon the ocean you will come to a place, no matter in which direction you go, where the sky and the water meet. I know this is true, for I have been to sea.”
The people cheered loudly at this, and said,
”Long live Pericles, the wisest of the wise men!”
”I shall hold I am right,” protested Sophocles, ”until Pericles and Socrates prove that I am wrong.”
”That is fair enough,” said the people.
”And I also shall hold myself to be right until they prove me wrong,”
declared Socrates, firmly.
”I know I am right,” said Pericles, ”for you cannot prove me wrong.”
”We can take a boat and sail over the sea,” remarked Socrates, ”and when we come to the edge we will know the truth. Will you go?”
”Yes,” answered Sophocles; and Pericles, because he did not dare refuse, said ”Yes” also.
Then they went to the sh.o.r.e of the sea, and the people followed them.
There was no boat to be found anywhere, for the fishers were all away upon the water; but there was a big wooden bowl lying upon the sh.o.r.e, which the fishermen used to carry their fish to market in.
”This will do,” said Pericles, who, because he weighed the most, was the greatest fool of the three.
So the wise men all sat within the bowl, with their feet together, and the people pushed them out into the water.
The tide caught the bowl and floated it out to sea, and before long the wise men were beyond sight of land.
They were all greatly frightened, for the bowl was old and cracked, and the water leaked slowly through until their feet were covered.
They clung to the edge with their hands and looked at one another with white faces. Said Pericles,
”I was a fool to come to sea in this bowl.”
”Ah,” remarked Socrates, ”if you are a fool, as you confess, then you cannot be a wise man.”
”No,” answered Pericles, ”but I 'll soon be a dead man.”
”I also was a fool,” said Sophocles, who was weeping from his one eye and trembling all over, ”for if I had stayed upon land I would not have been drowned.”
”Since you both acknowledge it,” sighed Socrates, ”I will confess that I also am a fool, and have always been one; but I looked so wise the people insisted I must know everything!”
”Yes, yes,” Sophocles groaned, ”the people have murdered us!”
”My only regret,” said Pericles, ”is that my wife is not with me. If only she were here”--
He did not finish what he was saying, for just then the bowl broke in two. And the people are still waiting for the three wise men to come back to them.