"
"I also am a son of Zeus, if Alexander be such," he commented.
"I want nothing that is Alexander's, for I am content with what I
have, while I see that he wanders with his men over sea and land
for no advantage, and is never coming to an end of his wanderings.
"Go and tell Alexander that God the Supreme King is never the Author
of insolent wrong, but is the Creator of light, of peace, of life,
of water, of the body of man and of souls; He receives all men when
death sets them free, being in no way subject to evil disease. He
alone is the God of my homage, who abhors slaughter and instigates
no wars.
"Alexander is no god, since he must taste of death," continued the
sage in quiet scorn. "How can such as he be the world's master,
when he has not yet seated himself on a throne of inner universal
dominion? Neither as yet has he entered living into Hades, nor
does he know the course of the sun through the central regions of
the earth, while the nations on its boundaries have not so much as
heard his name!"
After this chastisement, surely the most caustic ever sent to assault
the ears of the "Lord of the World," the sage added ironically,
"If Alexander's present dominions be not capacious enough for
his desires, let him cross the Ganges River; there he will find a
region able to sustain all his men, if the country on this side be
too narrow to hold him. {FN41-4}
"Know this, however, that what Alexander offers and the gifts he
promises are things to me utterly useless; the things I prize and
find of real use and worth are these leaves which are my house,
these blooming plants which supply me with daily food, and the water
which is my drink; while all other possessions which are amassed
with anxious care are wont to prove ruinous to those who gather
them, and cause only sorrow and vexation, with which every poor
mortal is fully fraught.
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