The Damsel and the Sage

The Damsel and the Sage, by
Elinor Glyn

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Title: The Damsel and the Sage A Woman's Whimsies
Author: Elinor Glyn
Release Date: March 1, 2007 [EBook #20718]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE DAMSEL
AND

THE SAGE
THE DAMSEL
AND
THE SAGE
A WOMAN'S WHIMSIES
BY ELINOR GLYN
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK & LONDON
MDCCCCIII
Copyright, 1903, by ELINOR GLYN.
All rights reserved.
Published October, 1903.

TO
THE SUN'S RAYS

A tree stood alone surrounded by high and low hills. It could be
observed from all sides, and it appeared different from each elevation.
The tree was the same, only the point of view differed.
Everything depends upon the point of view.
* * * * *
"And as to the meaning, it's what you please."

C. S. C.

THE DAMSEL AND THE SAGE
And the Damsel said to the Sage:
"Now, what is life? And why does the fruit taste bitter in the mouth?"
And the Sage answered, as he stepped from his cave:
"My child, there was once a man who had two ears like other people.
They were naturally necessary for his enjoyment of the day. But one of
these ears offended his head. It behaved with stupidity, thinking
thereby to enhance its value to him--it heard too much. Oh, it
conducted itself with a gross stupidity. 'Out upon you,' cried the man;
'since you have overstepped the limit of the functions of an ear, I shall
cut you from my head!' And so, without hesitation, he took a sword and
accomplished the deed. The poor ear then lay upon the ground bleeding,
and the man went about with a mutilated head."
"And what was the good of all that?" said the Damsel.
"There was no good in it," replied the Sage. "But he was a man, and he
had punished the too-fond-and-foolish ear--also he hoped a new and
more suitable one would grow in its place. 'Change,' he said, 'was a
thing to be welcomed.'"
"And tell me, Sage, what became of the ear?" asked the Damsel.
"The ear fared better. Another man of greater shrewdness came along,
and, although he had two ears of his own, he said, 'A third will not
come amiss,' and he picked up the ear and heard with three ears instead
of two. So he became knowing and clever because of the information
he acquired in this way. The grafted ear grew and flourished, and, in
spite of its remaining abnormal, it obtained a certain enjoyment out of
existence."

"But who really benefited by all this?" inquired the Damsel.
"No one," said the Sage; "the first man went about with only one ear;
the second man made himself remarkable with three--and the cut-off
ear, although alive and successful, felt itself an excrescence."
"Then what could be the pleasure of it all?" demanded the Damsel.
"Out upon you!" exclaimed the Sage, in a passion. "You asked me what
was life--and why the fruit tasted bitter in the mouth? I have answered
you."
And he went back into his cave and barred the door.
The Damsel sat down upon a stone outside.
"It seems to me that men are fools," she said, and she clapped her hands
to her two ears. "When I am angry and offended with one of you, I will
cut the ear from off the head of some one else."
And she picked up an apple and ate it. And it tasted sweet.
* * * * *
A man will often fling away a woman who has wronged him although
in doing so he is deeply hurting himself. A woman will forgive a man
who has wronged her because her own personal pleasure in him is
greater than her outraged pride. Hence women are more unconscious
philosophers than men.
* * * * *
The Damsel returned again to the cave of the Sage. There were other
questions she wished to ask about life. The door was hard to push ajar,
but at last she obtained entrance.
"What do you want now?" he demanded, with a voice of grumbling.
"Were you not content with my last utterances?"

"Yes--and no," said the Damsel. "I came to quite other conclusions
myself. I would have kept the ear on my head, since cutting