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then opened them, while he drew out his hands from the wide
sleeves of his dress, folded them on his breast, and began to
speak in a quiet, mild voice.
“Gentlemen,“ he said, “it seems to me that it is just their
own pride that more than anything else prevents men from
agreeing in religious matters. If it will not weary you, I will
make this clear by a parable. I journeyed from China to
Surat by an English steamer, which was on a voyage round
the world. On the way we stopped at the east coast of
Sumatra to take in water. At noon we went ashore and sat by
the seaside under the shade of some cocoa palms, not far from
some native villages. There were representatives of several
different nationalities in the company. While we were sitting
there a blind man came to us. He had become blind, as we
learnt later, from looking too long and keenly at the sun. In
consequence of his continual gazing at and thinking about the
sun he had at the same time lost both his sight and his reason.
Since he was perfectly blind he had become fully convinced
that there was no sun at all. He was accompanied by his slave,
who settled his master in the shade of a cocoa palm, picked up
a cocoanut, and began to make a night-light from it. He
made a wick out of the fibre, pressed oil from the nut, and
dipped the wick in it. While he was occupied with this the
blind man sighed and said, ‘Well, slave, what do you think
now? Did I not tell you that there is truly no sun at all?
See how dark it is, yet men say that there is a sun. But if
so, what is the sun?’”
“‘I don’t know what the sun is,’ said the slave; ‘it doesn’t
matter to me; but there is a light, I know that. Here is
a night-light that I have made, that gives light enough
for me to serve you with, and get things ready about the
cottage,’ and he held up his cocoanut shell, ‘Here,’ he said,
‘is my sun.’
“A lame man was sitting there with his crutches. He listened,
and began to laugh. ‘You have surely been born blind,’ said
he to the sightless man, ‘if you don’t know what the sun is.
I will tell you what it is. The sun is a fireball, and this
fireball rises every day out of the sea, and goes down every
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