Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/37

 There is an oriental story which tells of a ruler who summoned wise men to his palace and asked them the question: "What thing, in the whole world, gives the most light?" The wise men answered, "The sun." Then the ruler asked, "What gives the most light when the sun is down?" The wise men replied, "The moon." "And what if the moon is down and the sun not yet up, what is, then, the brightest thing in the world?" "The stars."

And the ruler pressed on and on with his questions, eliminating the sun, the moon, the stars, the Taj-Mahal, Aladdin's lamp, until the wise men got together and gave their final answer to the ruler: "Know thou, O most illustrious King, that there is no thing in the whole universe that gives more light than the soul of man."

If the Slavs were ask*d who their most illustrious men are, past and present, they would with one accord give a galaxy of names that would certainly include such immortals as Copernicus, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy, Hus, Mickiewicz, Dvořák, Strosmayer, Comenius, Soloviev, Masaryk, Kosciuszko, Šafařík, Tchaikovsky

If they were asked to name their profoundest philosopher, the answer would be: Dostoyevski.