Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/211

Rh "We all got down and tried to push our way forward to the rails, but the press was too great for us to get passage. At this juncture we observed a priest who had climbed up a tree and seated himself in a fork to see better. Being drowsy, he was continually dozing over, and awaking just in time to save himself from falling. Everybody shouted and jeered at him. 'What a fool,' cried they, 'this fellow is to let himself fall asleep so calmly in such a dangerous position!' Upon this a thought flashed on me, and I exclaimed, 'Yet here are we, spending our time in sight-seeing, forgetful that death may overtake us at any moment. We are bigger fools even than that priest.' The people in front of us all looked round and said, 'Nothing can be more true. It is indeed utter folly. Come this way, gentlemen.' So they opened a passage and allowed us to come forward. Now this remark of mine might have occurred to anybody. I suppose it was the unexpectedness of it at this time which caused it to make an impression. Men are not sticks or stones, and a word spoken at a favourable moment sometimes finds its way to the heart."

A commentator says that "this chapter is intended to impress us with the uncertainty of human things." The reader may draw his own moral.

"Beware of putting off the practice of religion until your old age. The ancient tombs are mostly those of young people."

"When we hear a man's name we try to form to ourselves some idea of his appearance, but we invariably find, on afterwards making his acquaintance, that we have been quite wrong."

"I wonder if it is only I who have sometimes the feeling that speeches which I have heard or sights that I have