“Great Hippocrates!” I exclaimed, springing to my feet in sudden, amazed recollection. “I thought you could neither walk nor talk, and you have not only come to see me but are talking as fluently as any one could.”
“Oh, well,” replied my visitor, “things are not always what they seem—even to doctors. I have not walked much as yet, it is true, but I thought it best not to do so. My limbs have never looked very promising, and consequently nothing has ever been expected of them. It is much easier to ride or be carried about than to walk—even with good legs—so I let the sympathy of the people about me have full sway.
“As for speaking, pray tell me what inducement there is to conversation in my case. I am not fond of hearing myself talk—not at all, and there’s no use talking to the people around me. They could not understand me and there are no subjects of mutual interest. Besides, if I should display my linguistic skill, my folks would be a little shy of me. They are very confidential, you know, and on account of my apparent inability to repeat what I hear, I get in on many a nice bit of grown-up gossip.”
“Well,” I said, “there does seem to be some advantage in concealing your power of speech, but I don’t quite comprehend your statement that the people about you would not understand you. Your language certainly seems clear enough for ordinary understanding.”
“Oh, well, you see I have thus far been talking in a quite commonplace fashion. We have exchanged hardly more than mere conversational greetings. With most persons the conversation would of necessity begin and end with mere perfunctory remarks, and that wouldn’t be worth while. You, however, being a doctor, and consequently a man of learning, are capable of appreciating me at my true value. I have long experienced a desire to converse with you, and to-night I resolved to call upon you here at your own home, where we can have a little chat without danger of interruption.”
“Yes,” I said, smiling at his assurance, “but how on earth have you acquired the information necessary to carry on an intelligent conversation with a scientific physician? You are only about three years of age, and if you are as intellectual as you claim to be, your precocity is certainly marvelous.”
My little friend smiled blandly, and replied: “That word, precocity, is a very offensive one, but I excuse you for using it, because it is evident that you do not know the true explanation of the advanced intellect of the so-called precocious child. Do you know anything of Buddhism, doctor?”
“Well, yes, something.”
“Then you will understand me when I say that ‘precocity’ is merely the development in the child of a portion of the wisdom acquired during its previous terrestrial existences. As you are aware, the modern school of theosophists has appropriated this theory of the Buddhists.”
“Very true,” I replied, with some amusement, “but that does not add to the validity of the theory.”