"
So the sensible chamberlain took a certain little object and held it
close to the eyes of one of the kings, and cried, "What is this?"
And the king, blinking and scowling, said after a bit:
"It is a volcano!"
The chamberlain answered, "Wrong; it is an inkstand," and showing it
proved that he spoke truth.
Then he held another thing close before the eyes of another king and
cried again, "What is this?"
And this king, puzzled, said, "I think it is a little piece of cloth."
"Wrong," said the sensible chamberlain. "It is the statue of the
Winged Victory."
And this happened not once but many times until at length the kings
understood. And they made a law that no one should stand too close to
the thing he wished to see clearly. And they added their judgment that
only the visitors to a country could see it as it is.
So the traveller dipped his quill in ink once more and started writing
his book. It is not yet known how successful he was.
Travellers make terrible errors, and yet at times they bring back
fragments of truth that the natives of the land have left unheeded
scattered on the soil of the countryside.
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