THE KING'S MIRROR 



73 



strength, lest the steep climb should weary me, if I 

 were to make an effort to get back up again. 

 Inasmuch as my father was still living and loved me ) 

 well, I thought it would be better to seek his counsel / 

 than after a slight consideration to reach a decision C 

 which might displease him.JSo I hastened to my father 

 and laid the whole problem before him. He was a wise 

 and kind man, and I found that he was pleased when 

 he heard that my errand was to learn right conduct. He 

 permitted me to ask whatever I wished about the prac- 

 tices of the various crafts, and how they differed. He 

 also promised to make known to me all the usages that 

 are most properly observed by each craft that I might 

 ask about. He further promised to point out, as a warn- 

 ing, the paths of error which most men enter upon when 

 they leave the highways of virtue. Finally he promised 

 to show me the by-paths that those may take who 

 wish to return from wrong roads to the highway. 



*~v 



Thereupon I began my inquiry by asking about the 

 activities of merchants and their methods. At the close 

 of the first discussion, when my questions had all been 

 answered, I became bolder in speech and mounted to a 

 higher point in our review of the conditions of men; for 

 next I began to inquire into the customs of kings and 

 other princes and of the men who follow and serve them. 

 Nor did I wholly omit to ask about the doings of the 

 clergy and their mode of life. And I closed by inquiring 



into the activities of the peasants and husbandmen, w } 10 

 till the soil, and into their habits and occupation. 



But when my father had given wise and sufficient re- 

 plies to all the questions that I had asked, certain wise 







