THE KING'S MIRROR 193 



XXXV 



CONCERNING FAILURE OF CROPS AND DEARTH IN 

 MORALS AND GOVERNMENT 



Son. It is a fact that I have met some who, though 

 they came from court, either concealed the sort of man- 

 ners that you have now discussed, if they knew them, 

 or had, as I remarked, never gained insight into such 

 matters. Now it is not strange that those who remain 

 at home in ignorance or are not of an inquiring mind 

 know little or nothing about such things; but it is more 

 to be wondered at, as you have just said, that many re- 

 main a long time with the king and close to him in serv- 

 ice, and still do not learn either what courtesy means 

 or what courtly manners are. Therefore, since you have 

 warned me to beware of such ignorance, I want to ask 

 you how this can be and how a king who is well-bred 

 and courteous can be willing to keep men about his per- 

 son to serve him, who refuse to live according to good 

 manners. For I have thought that, if a king is courteous 

 and refined, all would imitate him in decorum, and that 

 he would not care much for churlish men. 



Father. It may happen sometimes that a husband- 

 man who is accustomed to eat good bread and clean 

 food has to mix chaff or bran with his flour so as to make 

 his bread and that of his household last longer than 

 common; and at such times he must, though reluctant, 

 partake of such food as is set before him in the same 

 thankful spirit as earlier, when he was given good and 

 clean food; and such cases result from grinding neces- 

 sity, that is, from crop failures. But scarcity arises in 



