Fathers and sons -- Fiction; People with disabilities -- Fiction; Princes -- Fiction; Refugees -- Fiction
"Then he sat still for several minutes, and let his eyes rest on my
father, until he felt as if the light in them were set in the midst of
his own body and his soul. Then he said, 'I cannot tell thee all thou
wouldst know. That I may not do.' He had a wonderful gentle voice, like
a deep soft bell. 'But the work will be done. Thy life and thy son's
life will set it on its way.'
"They sat through the whole night together. And the stars hung quite
near, as if they listened. And there were sounds in the bushes of
stealthy, padding feet which wandered about as if the owners of them
listened too. And the wonderful, low, peaceful voice of the holy man
went on and on, telling of wonders which seemed like miracles but which
were to him only the 'working of the Law.'"
"What is the Law?" The Rat broke in.
"There were two my father wrote down, and I learned them. The first was
the law of The One. I'll try to say that," and he covered his eyes and
waited through a moment of silence.
It seemed to The Rat as if the room held an extraordinary stillness.
"Listen!" came next. "This is it:
"'_There are a myriad worlds. There is but One Thought out of which they
grew. Its Law is Order which cannot swerve. Its creatures are free to
choose. Only they can create Disorder, which in itself is Pain and Woe
and Hate and Fear. These they alone can bring forth. The Great One is a
Golden Light. It is not remote but near. Hold thyself within its glow
and thou wilt behold all things clearly. First, with all thy breathing
being, know one thing! That thine own thought--when so thou standest--is
one with That which thought the Worlds!_'"
"What?" gasped The Rat. "_My_ thought--the things _I_ think!"
"Your thoughts--boys' thoughts--anybody's thoughts."
"You're giving me the jim-jams!"
"He said it," answered Marco. "And it was then he spoke about the broken
Link--and about the greatest books in the world--that in all their
different ways, they were only saying over and over again one thing
thousands of times. Just this thing--'Hate not, Fear not, Love.' And he
said that was Order. And when it was disturbed, suffering came--poverty
and misery and catastrophe and wars."
"Wars!" The Rat said sharply. "The World couldn't do without war--and
armies and defences! What about Samavia?"
"My father asked him that. And this is what he answered. I learned that
too. Let me think again," and he waited as he had waited before. Then he
lifted his head. "Listen! This is it:
"_'Out of the blackness of Disorder and its outpouring of human misery,
there will arise the Order which is Peace. When Man learns that he is
one with the Thought which itself creates all beauty, all power, all
splendor, and all repose, he will not fear that his brother can rob him
of his heart's desire. He will stand in the Light and draw to himself
his own.'_"
"Draw to himself?" The Rat said. "Draw what he wants? I don't believe
it!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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