Page:Tales of the Unexpected (1924).djvu/219

 'Why don't you eat it, then?' said Mr Hinchcliff, with an inspiration.

'I took it intending to eat it,' said the stranger. 'Man has fallen. Merely to eat again could scarcely'

'Knowledge is power,' said Mr Hinchcliff.

'But is it happiness? I am older than you—more than twice as old. Time after time I have held this in my hand, and my heart has failed me at the thought of all that one might know, that terrible lucidity—Suppose suddenly all the world became pitilessly clear?'

'That, I think, would be a great advantage,' said Mr Hinchcliff, 'on the whole.'

'Suppose you saw into the hearts and minds of every one about you, into their most secret recesses—people you loved, whose love you valued? '

'You'd soon find out the humbugs,' said Mr Hinchcliff, greatly struck by the idea.

'And worse—to know yourself, bare of your most intimate illusions. To see yourself in your place. All that your lusts and weaknesses prevented your doing. No merciful perspective.'

'That might be an excellent thing too. "Know thyself," you know.'

'You are young,' said the stranger.

'If you don't care to eat it, and it bothers you, why dont you throw it away? '

'There again, perhaps, you will not understand me. To me, how could one throw away a thing like that, glowing, wonderful? Once one has it, one is bound. But, on the other hand, to give it away! To give it away to some one who thirsted after knowledge, who found no terror in the thought of that clear perception'

'Of course,' said Mr Hinchcliff thoughtfully, 'it might be some sort of poisonous fruit.'

And then his eye caught something motionless, the