Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/147

 128 restores again the light of life to those who haVd departed. Accordingly he alone is my lord who forbids murder and excites no wars. But Alex- ander is no God, for he himself will have to die. How, then, can he be the lord of all, who has not yet crossed the river Tyberoboas, nor has made the whole world his abode, nor crossed the zone of G a d e s, nor has beheld the course of the sun in the centre of the world P Therefore many nations do not yet even know his name. If, how- ever, the country he possesses cannot contain him, let him cross our river and he will find a soil which is able to support men. All those things Alexander promises would be useless to me if he gave them: I have leaves for a house, live on the herbs at hand and water to drink ; other things collected with labour, and which perish and yield nothing but sorrow to those seeking them or possessing them, — these I despise. I there- fore now rest secure, and with closed eyes I care for nothing. If I wish to keep gold, I destroy my sleep ; Earth supplies me with everything, as a mother does to her child. Wherever I wish to go, I proceed, and wherever I do not wish to be, no necessity of care can force me to go. And if he wish to cut off my head, he cannot take my soul ; he will only take the fallen head, but the depart- ing soul will leave the head like a portion of some garment, and will restore it to whence it received it, namely, to the earth. But when I shall have become a spirit I shall ascend to God, who has enclosed it within this flesh. When he did this he wished to try us, how, after leaving him, we would live in this world. And afterwards, when Digitized by Google