Chapter 20

Babbalanja Quotes From An Antique Pagan; And Earnestly Presses It Upon
The Company, That What He Recites Is Not His, But Another's

Journeying on, we stopped by a gurgling spring, in a beautiful grove;
and here, we stretched out on the grass, and our attendants unpacked
their hampers, to provide us a lunch.

But as for that Babbalanja of ours, he must needs go and lunch by
himself, and, like a cannibal, feed upon an author; though in other
respects he was not so partial to bones.

Bringing forth the treasure he had buried in his bosom, he was soon
buried in it; and motionless on his back, looked as if laid out, to
keep an appointment with his undertaker.

"What, ho! Babbalanja!" cried Media from under a tree, "don't be a
duck, there, with your bill in the air; drop your metaphysics, man,
and fall to on the solids. Do you hear?"

"Come, philosopher," said Mohi, handling a banana, "you will weigh
more after you have eaten."

"Come, list, Babbalanja," cried Yoomy, "I am going to sing."

"Up! up! I say," shouted Media again. "But go, old man, and wake him:
rap on his head, and see whether he be in."

Mohi, obeying, found him at home; and Babbalanja started up.

"In Oro's name, what ails you, philosopher? See you Paradise, that you
look so wildly?"

"A Happy Life! a Happy Life!" cried Babbalanja, in an ecstasy. "My
lord, I am lost in the dream of it, as here recorded. Marvelous book!
its goodness transports me. Let me read:--'I would bear the same mind,
whether I be rich or poor, whether I get or lose in the world. I will
reckon benefits well placed as the fairest part of my possession, not
valuing them by number or weight, but by the profit and esteem of the
receiver; accounting myself never the poorer for any thing I give.
What I do shall be done for conscience, not ostentation. I will eat
and drink, not to gratify my palate, but to satisfy nature. I will be
cheerful to my friends, mild and placable to my enemies. I will
prevent an honest request, if I can foresee it; and I will grant it,
without asking. I will look upon the whole world as my country; and
upon Oro, both as the witness and the judge of my words and my deeds.
I will live and die with this testimony: that I loved a good
conscience; that I never invaded another man's liberty; and that I
preserved my own. I will govern my life and my thoughts, as if the
whole world were to see the one, and to read the other; for what does
it signify, to make any thing a secret to my neighbor, when to Oro all
our privacies are open.'"

"Very fine," said Media.

"The very spirit of the