Person, Proves It
"A truce!" cried Media, "here comes a gallant before the wind.—
Look, Taji!"
Turning, we descried a sharp-prowed canoe, dashing on, under the
pressure of an immense triangular sail, whose outer edges were
streaming with long, crimson pennons. Flying before it, were several
small craft, belonging to the poorer sort of Islanders.
"Out of his way there, ye laggards," cried Media, "or that mad
prince, Tribonnora, will ride over ye with a rush!"
"And who is Tribonnora," said Babbalanja, "that he thus bravely
diverts himself, running down innocent paddlers?"
"A harum-scarum young chief," replied Media, "heir to three islands; he likes nothing better than the sport you now see see him at."
"He must be possessed by a devil," said Mohi.
Said Babbalanja, "Then he is only like all of us." "What say you?" cried Media.
"I say, as old Bardianna in the Nine hundred and ninety ninth book of
his immortal Ponderings saith, that all men—"
"As I live, my lord, he has swamped three canoes," cried Mohi, pointing off the beam.
But just then a fiery fin-back whale, having broken into the paddock
of the lagoon, threw up a high fountain of foam, almost under
Tribonnora's nose; who, quickly turning about his canoe, cur-like
slunk off; his steering-paddle between his legs.
Comments over; "Babbalanja, you were going to quote," said Media. "Proceed."
"Thank you, my lord. Says old Bardianna, 'All men are possessed by
devils; but as these devils are sent into men, and kept in them, for
an additional punishment; not garrisoning a fortress, but limboed in
a bridewell; so, it may be more just to say, that the devils
themselves are possessed by men, not men by them.'"
"Faith!" cried Media, "though sometimes a bore, your old Bardianna is
a trump."
"I have long been of that mind, my lord. But let me go on. Says
Bardianna, 'Devils are divers;—strong devils, and weak devils; knowing devils, and silly devils; mad devils, and mild devils; devils, merely devils; devils, themselves bedeviled; devils, doubly bedeviled."
"And in the devil's name, what sort of a devil is yours?" cried Mohi.
"Of him anon; interrupt me not, old man. Thus, then, my lord, as
devils are divers, divers are the devils in men. Whence, the wide
difference we see. But after all, the main difference is this:—that
one man's devil is only more of a devil than another's; and be
bedeviled as much as you will; yet, may you perform the most
bedeviled of actions with impunity, so long as you only bedevil
yourself. For it is only when your deviltry injures another, that the
other devils conspire to confine yours for a mad one. That is to say, if you be easily handled. For there are many bedeviled Bedlamites in Mardi, doing an infinity of mischief, who are too brawny in the arms to be tied."
"A very devilish doctrine that," cried Mohi. "I don't believe it."
"My lord," said Babbalanja, "here's collateral proof;—the sage
lawgiver Yamjamma, who flourished long before Bardianna, roundly
asserts, that all men who knowingly do evil are bedeviled; for good
is happiness; happiness the object of living; and evil is not good."
"If the sage Yamjamma said that," said old Mohi, "the sage Yamjamma
might have bettered the saying; it's not quite so plain as it might be."
"Yamjamma disdained to be plain; he scorned to be fully comprehended
by mortals. Like all oracles, he dealt in dark sayings. But old
Bardianna was of another sort; he spoke right out, going straight to
the point like a javelin; especially when he laid it down for a
universal maxim, that minus exceptions, all men are bedeviled."
"Of course, then," said Media, "you include yourself among the number."
"Most assuredly; and so did old Bardianna; who somewhere says, that
being thoroughly bedeviled himself, he was so much the better
qualified to discourse upon the deviltries of his neighbors. But in
another place he seems to contradict himself, by asserting, that he
is not so sensible of his own deviltry as of other people's."
"Hold!" cried Media, "who have we here?" and he pointed ahead of our
prow to three men in the water, urging themselves along, each with a
paddle.
We made haste to overtake them.
"Who are you?" said Media, "where from, and where bound?"