No More Learning

TEMPLAR: Ah, no; ah, no.
How truly said thy father, "Do but know her. "
Yet now I must attend him. There is danger.


SCENE IV. --SALADIN'S _audience chamber_. SALADIN _and_ NATHAN.

SALADIN: Draw nearer, Jew. Your name is Nathan?

NATHAN: Yea.

SALADIN: Nathan the Wise?

NATHAN: Ah, no.

SALADIN: Of modesty
Enough, your words and bearing prove you wise.
Now, since you are so wise, tell me which law
Appears to you the better.

NATHAN: Once on a time, eastward, there dwelt a man
Who prized a ring, set with a wondrous opal
That made the owner loved of God and man.
This ring he willed should ever more remain
The heirloom of his house; and to the son
He loved the best bequeathed it, binding him
To leave it also to his best beloved,
And forward so. At length the ring descended
To one who had three sons he loved alike.
To each in turn the doting father promised
The ring, and on his death-bed, sorely grieving
To disappoint two heirs, he had two rings
Made like the first, so close that none could tell
The model from the copies. These he gave
To his three sons in secret, and so passed.
The sequel may be guessed, the strifes, complaints--
For the true ring no more could be distinguished
Than now can--the true faith. Each to the judge
Swore that he had the bauble from his father,
And called his brother forger. Quoth the judge:
"Which of you do his brothers love the best?
You're silent all. You're all deceived deceivers!
None of your rings is true, the true is gone.
Your father sought to end its tyranny.
Let each believe his own the real ring
And vie with others to display its virtue.
And if its power a thousand thousand years
Endure in your descendants, let them then
Before a wiser judge than I appear,
And he'll decide the cause. "

SALADIN: Even God Himself!

NATHAN: Art thou, O Saladin, this wiser judge?

SALADIN: Not yet have sped the thousand thousand years.