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188 others by flattery, while others, again, occupied them arbitrarily. Seeing this, I exclaimed: "Lo, what disorder!" "Hush, froward one," said the interpreter; "thou wilt fare ill if they hear thee!" "Why, then," quoth I, "do not these men wait till they are chosen?" He answered: "Ha! these men are no doubt conscious that they are capable of such work; if the others admit them to it, what concern is that of thine?"

3. Then I am silent; and after putting my spectacles aright, I look at these men attentively and witness an astounding sight—to wit, that hardly one of them possessed all his limbs; almost every one of them was devoid of some necessary thing. Some had not ears through which they could hear the complaints of their subordinates; some had not eyes to see the disorder before them; some had not a nose to scent the plots of knaves against the right; some had not a tongue to speak in favour of the dumb, oppressed ones; some had no hand to carry out the decrees of justice; many also had not a heart to do what justice requires.

4. But those who had all these things were woeful men, as I saw; for they were continually importuned, so that they could neither eat quietly nor sleep sufficiently, while the others spent more than half their time in idleness. And I said: "Why, then, do they entrust these judgments to such men, who have not the members necessary for the purpose?" The interpreter answered that this was not so, but that it only appeared thus to me for he said: "'Qui nescit simulare nescit regnare.'