Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/132

110 this he does not of himself, but by the lips of the wise counsellor who is introduced in parable number six. It is only when Balavari is persuaded that Iodasaph's soul is fully prepared, it is only when the latter, in imitation of the king mentioned in the sixth parable, declares his readiness to receive the true faith at once, that a dogmatic and monitory tone begins to predominate in the parables, and that finally Balavari openly preaches the Christian religion to his pupil. Meanwhile in the Arabic, in which the allegorical element predominates, as also in the Greek, in which it is lost under a mass of reflections, the parables occupy a casual place, and are deprived of that preparatory significance which they acquire, in the Georgian adaptation, from the preaching of the ascetic. The reflections of a dogmatic and ascetic character, which are almost absent in the Arabic, and are insignificant and brief in the Georgian, take on a wide development in the Greek; and if we compare the tale from this standpoint as we have it in the three languages, the importance of the Arabic is very small, and we need only regard the Greek and the Georgian. Still, in making this comparison it is to be noticed how many points belong exclusively to the Greek. Such are the history of the Old and New Testaments, given twice over; the proof of a divine force in Christianity; the proof that it was spread by means of a small number of humble people; the comparison of the law of the New Testament with that of Moses; the long extracts from the Sermon on the Mount, with other citations from Matthew and Luke; all the other citations from the entire Bible and those taken from the fathers; the detailed teaching of the Trinity and of all sorts of other orthodox beliefs; the inculcation of respect for Ikons; the discussion of free-will and election; the explanation of the sacraments of baptism and of the Eucharist; the sermon on repentance and mercy; the treatise on martyrs and confessors; the circumstantial information concerning ascetics and monks; the proof of