ONCE a man unearthed in his field a marble statue of great beauty. And he took it to a collector who loved all beautiful things and offered it to him for sale, and the collector bought it for a large price. And they parted.
And as the man walked home with his money he thought, and he said to himself, “How much life this money means! How can any one give all this for a dead carved stone buried and undreamed of in the earth for a thousand years?”
And now the collector was looking at his statue, and he was thinking, and he said to himself, “What beauty! What life! The dream of what a soul!—and fresh with the sweet sleep of a thousand years. How can any one give all this for money, dead and dreamless?”
OTHER SEAS
A FISH said to another fish, “Above this sea of ours there is another sea, with creatures swimming in it—and they live there even as we live here.”
The fish replied, “Pure fancy! Pure fancy! When you know that everything that leaves our sea by even an inch, and stays out of it, dies. What proof have you of other lives in other seas?”
REPENTANCE
ON a moonless night a man entered into his neighbour’s garden and stole the largest melon he could find and brought it home.
He opened it and found it still unripe.
Then behold a marvel!