Volume II Part 29 (1/2)
”Fathounwale?
And now, hts Come, tell me how you poets spend so many hours in meditation”
”My lord, it is because, that e think, we think so little of ourselves”
”I thought as much,” said Mohi, ”for no sooner do I undertake to be sociable with htway forced to beat a retreat”
”Ay, old man,” said Babbalanja, ”many of us Mardians are but sorry hosts to ourselves Some hearts are hermits”
”If not of yourself, then, Yoomy, of whom else do you think?”
asked Media
”My lord, I seldoive ear to the voices in my calm”
”Did Babbalanja speak?” said Media ”But no radually sunk into a reverie himself
The rest did likewise; and soon, with eyes enchanted, all reclined: gazing at each other, witless of e did
It was Media who broke the spell; calling for Vee-Vee our page, his calabashes and cups, and nectarines for all
Eyeing his goblet, Media at length threw himself back, and said: ”Babbalanja, not ten minutes since, ere all absent-minded; noould you like to step out of your body, in reality; and, as a spirit, haunt sos are not wholly superfluous,loud
”No, nor our lips,” said Mohi, s his over his wine
”But could you really be disembodied here in Mardi, Babbalanja, hoould you fancy it?” said Media
”My lord,” said Babbalanja, speaking through half of a nectarine, ”defer putting that question, I beseech, till after ry mortal would forfeit his palate, to be resolved into the impalpable”
”Yet pure spirits we must all beconoble”
”Yes, so they say, Yoomy; but if all boors be the immortal sires of endless dynasties of immortals, how little do our pious patricians bear in nificent destiny, when hourly they scorn their companionshi+p And if here in Mardi they can not abide an equality with plebeians, even at the altar; how shall they endure thehout eternity? But since the prophet Alma asserts, that Paradise is almost entirely made up of the poor and despised, no wonder that many aristocrats of our isles pursue a career, which, according to soies, must forever preserve the social distinctions so sedulously h so earthy is removed fro; yet, according to the popular legends, it has ever been observed of the ghosts of boors when revisiting Mardi, that invariably they rise in their s our intellectual equality here, how unjust, hts consecrated to the hard gaining of wisdom, the wisest Mardian of us all should in the end find the whole sum of his attainments, at one leap outstripped by the veriest dunce, suddenly inspired by light divine And though some hold, that all Mardian lore is vain, and that at death all mysteries will be revealed; yet, none the less, do they toil and ponder now
Thus, their tongues have oneanother”
”My lord,” said Mohi, ”we have come to the lees; your pardon, Babbalanja”
”Then, Vee-Vee, another calabash!+ Fill up, Mohi; wash doith wine Your cup, Babbalanja; any lees?”
”Plenty, my lord; we philosophers come to the lees very soon”
”Flood the; thanks be to the Gods, your ether; fill up, I say, Babbalanja; you are no philosopher, if you stop at the tenth cup; endurance is the test of philosophy all Mardi over; drink, I say, and make us wise by precept and exa to say”
”Thanks, my lord Just now, Babbalanja, you flew from the subject;-- you spoke of boors; but has not the lowliest peasant an eye that can take in the vast horizon at a sweep: ?”