The Toy River 



illusion : and, as likely as not, he will decide to 

 his own satisfaction that the moon at his feet is 

 the real, since it is the way of philosophers to 

 prefer things at their feet and to give more atten- 

 tive scrutiny to their own boots than to anything 

 else in the world. About him and about are fair 

 things growing, but he sees them not : not the 

 flowering andromeda, nor the rustling bamboos, 

 nor the yellow lilies, nor the nodding osmunda, nor 

 the iris, nor the polygonum, nor the bugle. He 

 sits there and sees nothing but his own boots, and 

 the roar in the trees is to him only the rushing 

 mighty wind of his own thoughts. . . . " / am 

 that I am " is not for him, though it is for all that 

 lives and grows : for him is only a blind longing 

 to say : " I am that I am not." Why then admit 

 him to the garden ? . . . It is for all and sundry, 

 and the uneducated and illiterate are flattered when 

 I point to the tree, and say : " There is the 

 Philosopher's Seat." 



There are fish in the lake by way of making 

 it convincing. The water is quite as wet as other 

 water, but, without fish, there is a danger of its not 

 being taken seriously : and thereby hangs a tale 

 — a live-stock tragedy which shall serve for a 

 short interlude. 



i53 



