The Land of the Blue FlowerBurnett, Frances Hodgson
Science
The Land of the Blue Flower
Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Fairy tales
"Something strange has happened," King Amor answered. "I have felt
something I have not felt before. I was riding my horse around the field
on the plateau and he saw something which he refused to pass. It was a
young leopard watching us from a tree. My horse reared and snorted. He
would not listen to me, but backed and wheeled around. I tried in vain
to persuade him, and suddenly, when I saw I could not make him obey me,
this strange new feeling rushed through all my body. I grew hot and knew
my face was scarlet, my heart beat faster and my blood seemed to boil in
my veins. I shouted out harsh, ugly sounds--I forgot that all things are
brothers--I lifted my hand and clenched it and struck my horse again and
again. I loved him no longer, I felt that he no longer loved me. I am
hot and wearied and heavy from it still. I feel no more joy. Was it pain
I felt? I have never felt pain and do not know. Was it pain?"
"It was a worse thing," answered the Ancient One. "It was anger. When a
man is overcome by anger he has a poisoned fever. He loses his strength,
he loses his power over himself and over others, he throws away time in
which he might have gained the end he most desires. THERE IS NO TIME FOR
ANGER IN THE WORLD."
So King Amor learned the uselessness of anger, for they sat long upon
the battlements while the Ancient One told him how its poison worked in
the veins and weakened the strongest man until he was made a fool. That
night Amor lay under the sky looking at his myriad brothers, the stars,
and drawing calm from them.
"If you lie through the night upon the battlements and think only of the
stillness and the stars you will forget your anger and its poison will
die away. If you put into your mind a beautiful thought it will take the
place of the evil one. There is no room for darkness in the mind of him
who thinks only of the stars." This had been said to him by the Ancient
One.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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