"But, on the contrary," he went on to say, "be pleased to represent
unto your fancy another world, wherein every one lendeth, and everyone
oweth, all are debtors, and all creditors. O how great will that harmony
be, which shall thereby result from the regular motions of the heavens!
Methinks I hear it every whit as well as ever Plato did.[255] What
sympathy will there be amongst the elements! O how delectable then unto
nature will be our own works and productions! Whilst Ceres appeareth
loaden with corn, Bacchus with wines, Flora with flowers, Pomona with
fruits, and Juno fair in a clear air, wholsom and pleasant. I lose
myself in this high contemplation. Then will among the race of mankind,
peace, love, benevolence, fidelity, tranquillity, rests, banquets,
feastings, joy, gladness, gold, silver, single money [small change],
chains, rings, with other ware, and chaffer of that nature, be found to
trot from hand to hand. No suits at law, no wars, no strife, debate, nor
wrangling; none will be there an usurer, none will be there a
pinch-penny, a scrape-good wretch, or churlish hard-hearted refuser.
Will not this be the golden age in the reign of Saturn?--the true idea
of the Olympick regions, wherein all [other] vertues cease, charity
alone ruleth, governeth, domineereth, and triumpheth? All will be fair
and goodly people there, all just and vertuous. O happy world! O people
of that world most happy! Yea, thrice and four times blessed is that
people! I think in very deed that I am amongst them."[256]
In one curious passage Sir Thomas Urquhart amplifies the text of the
author whom he translates, and supplies his readers with an astonishing
list of onomatopœic words, many of which will probably be new to those
who have not come across this passage before. Rabelais has nine of these
words, but the translator[257] enlarges the list to seventy-one.
Pantagruel is arguing against fasting and solitude as aids to a
contemplative life, and quotes the authority of his father Gargantua.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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