Page:The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart.pdf/122

118 doctors, priests, youths, and grey-headed men. Some of these stood together conversing and disputing; others betook themselves to corners, so as to be out of the view of the rest. Some (as I well saw, but I dared not speak to them of this) had eyes, but had no tongue; others had a tongue, but had no eyes: others had only ears, but neither eyes nor tongue; and so forth. Thus did I understand that here also defects remained. But as I now see that all these men enter into the place, and then again leave it, as bees swarm into and out of a bee-hive, I insist that we also should go there.

6. Thus we enter; and behold, there was a hall so large that I could not perceive its ending, and on all sides it was so full of many shelves, compartments, and gallipots that a man could not have conveyed them on a hundred thousand carts; and each one had its own inscription and title. And I said: "What apothecary's shop have we then entered?" "Into an apothecary's shop," said the interpreter, "where remedies against the ailments of the mind are kept; and this, by its proper name, is called a library. See what endless storehouses of wisdom are here." Then looking, I see long rows of learned men, who arrived from all directions and turned round these things. Some chose out the finest and most subtle among them, extracted morsels from them, and received them into their bodies, gently chewing and digesting