Latest / Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily / 14 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton

Transcript

14 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton · Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, The Creature that Man Forgets. Despite the natural
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: hubbub round the wound of Lord Ivywood and the difficulties
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of the police in finding their way to the shore,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the fugitives of the Flying Inn must almost certainly have
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: been captured but for a curious accident which also flowed,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: as it happened, from the Great Ivywood Debate on Vegetarianism.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: The comparatively late hour at which Lord Ivywood had made
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: his discovery had been largely due to a very long
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: speech which Joan had not heard, and which was delivered
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: immediately before the few concluding observations she had heard from
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Doctor Gluck. The speech was made by an eccentric. Of course,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: most of those who attended, and nearly all of those
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: who talked, were eccentric in one way or another. But
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: he was an eccentric of great wealth and good family.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: An m P. A j P. A relation of Lady Enid,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: a man well known in art and letters. In short,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a personality who could not be prevented from being anything.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: He chose, from a revolutionist to a bore Dorian. Whimpole
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: had first become famous outside his own class under the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: fanciful title of the Poet of the Birds, a volume
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: of verse expanding the several notes or cries of separate
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: songbirds into fantastic soliloquies. Of these feathered philosophers had really
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: contained a great deal of ingenuity and elegance. Unfortunately, he
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: was one of those who always tend to take their
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: own fancies seriously, in whose otherwise legitimate extravagance there is
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: too little of the juice of jest. Hence in his
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: later works, when he explained the fable of the Angel
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: by trying to prove that the fowls of the air
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: were creatures higher than man or the anthropoids, his manner
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: was felt to be too austere, and when he moved
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: an amendment to Lord Ivywood's scheme for the model village
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: called Peace Ways, urging that its houses should all follow
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the more hygienic architecture of nests hung in trees, many
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: regretted that he had lost his light touch. But when
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: he went beyond birds and filled his poems with conjectural
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: psychology about all the zoological gardens, his meaning became obscure,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and Lady Susan had even described it as his bad period.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: It was all the more uncomfortable reading, because he poured
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: forth the imaginary hymns, love songs, and war songs of
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the lower animals without a word of previous explanation. Thus,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: if some one seeking for an ordinary drawing room song
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: came on lines that were headed a desert love song,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: in which began her head as high against the stars,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: her hump as heaved in pride, the compliment to the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: lady would at first seem startling until the reader realized
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: that all the characters in the idol were camels. Or
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: if he began a poem simply entitled the March of
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Democracy and found in the first lines comrades marching evermore,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: fix your teeth in floor and door, he might be
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: doubtful about such a policy for the masses until he
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: discovered that it was supposed to be addressed by an
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: eloquent and aspiring rat to the social solidarity of his race.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Lord Ivywood had nearly quarreled with his poetic relative over
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the uproarious realism of the verses called a drinking song,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: until it was carefully explained to him that the drink
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: was water, and that the festive company consisted of bisons.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: His vision of the perfect husband as it exists in
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the feelings of the young female. Walrus is thoughtful and suggestive,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: but would doubtless receive many emendations from anyone who had
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: experienced those feelings. And in his sonic called Motherhood, he
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: has made the young scorpion consistent and convincing, yet somehow
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: not wholly lovable. In justice to him. However, it should
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: be remembered that he attacked the most difficult cases on principle,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: declaring that there is no earthly creature that a poet
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: should forget. He was of the blonde type of his cousin,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: with flowing fair hair and mustache, and a bright blue,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: absent minded eye. He was very well dressed in the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: carefully careless manner, with a brown velvet jacket and the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: image on his ring of one of those beasts men
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: worshiped in Egypt. His speech was graceful and well worded,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and enormously long, and it was all about an oyster.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: He passionately protested against the suggestion of some humanitarians who
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: were vegetarians and other respects, but maintained the organism so
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: simple might fairly be counted as exceptions. Man. He said,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: even at his miserable best was always trying to excommunicate
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: some one citizen of the cosmos, to forget some one
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: creature that he should remember. Now it seemed that creature
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: was the oyster. He gave a long account of the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: tragedy of the oyster, a really imaginative and picturesque account,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: full of fantastic fishes and coral crags, crawling and climbing,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and bearded creatures streaking the sea shore in the green darkness,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in the cellars of the sea. What a horrid irony
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: it is, He cried, that this is the only one
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of the lower creatures whom we call a native. We
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: speak of him and of him alone, as if he
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: were a native of the country, whereas indeed he is
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: an exile in the universe. What can be conceived more
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: pitiful than the eternal frenzy of the impotent amphibian? What
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: is more terrible than the tear of an oyster? Nature
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: herself has sealed it with the hard seal of eternity.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: The creature a man forgets bears against him a testimony
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that cannot be forgotten. For the tears of widows and
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: of captives are wiped away at last like the tears
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: of children. They vanish like the mists of morning, or
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the small pools after a flood. But the tear of
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the oyster is a pearl. The poet of the Birds
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: was so excited with his own speech that after the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: meeting he walked out with a wild eye to the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: motor car, which had been long awaiting him. The chauffeur,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: giving some faint signs of relief. Toward home for the present,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: said the poet, and stared at the moon with an
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: inspired face. He was very fond of motoring, finding it
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: fed him with inspirations, and he had been doing it
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: from an early hour that morning. Having enjoyed a slightly
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: lessened sleep. He had scarcely spoken to anybody until he
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: spoke to the cultured crowd at Ivywood. He did not
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: wish to speak to any one for many hours, yet
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: his ideas were racing. He had thrown on a fur
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: coat over his velvet jacket, but he let it fly open,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Having long forgotten the coldness and the splendor of the
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: moon struck night, He realized only two things, the swiftness
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of his car and the swiftness of his thoughts. He
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: felt as it were a fury of omniscience, he seemed,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: flying with every bird that sped or spun above the woods,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: with every squirrel that had leaped and tumbled within them,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: with every tree that had swung under and sustained the blast.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Yet in a few moments he leaned forward and tapped
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the glass frontage of the car, and the chauffeur, suddenly,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: squaring his shoulders, jarringly, stopped the wheels. Dorian Wimpole had
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: just seen something in the clear moonlight by the roadside
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: which appealed both to this and to the other side
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of his tradition, something that appealed to Wimpole as well
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: as to Dorian. Two shabby looking men, one in tattered
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: gaiters and the other in what looked like the remains
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of fancy dress, with the addition of hair of so
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: wild a red that it looked like a wig, were
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: halted under the hedge, apparently loading a donkey cart. At
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: least two rounded, rudely cylindrical objects, looking more or less
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: like tubs, stood out in the road beside the wheels,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: along with a sort of loose wooden post that lay
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: along the road beside them. As a matter of fact,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the man and the old gaiters had just been feeding
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and watering the donkey, and was now adjusting its harness
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: more easy. But Dorian Whimpole naturally did not expect that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: sort of thing from that sort of man. There swelled
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: up in him the sense that his omnipotence went beyond
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the poetical, that he was a gentleman, a magistrate, an
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: m P and j P and so on. This callousness
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: or ignorance about animals should not go on while he
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: was a j P, especially since Ivywood's last act. He
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: simply strode across to the stationary cart and said, you
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: are overloading that animal, and it is forfeited, and you
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: must come with me to the police station. Humphrey Pump,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: who was very considerate to animals and had always tried
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to be considerate to gentlemen in spite of having put
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: a bullet into one of their legs, was simply too
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: astounded and distressed to make any answer at all. He
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: moved a step or two backward and stared with brown
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: blinking eyes at the poet, the donkey, the cask, the cheese,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and the signboard laying in the road. But Captain Delroy
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: with the quicker recovery of his national temperament swept the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: poet and magistrate a vast fantastic bow, and said, with
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: agreeable impudence, interested in donkeys, no doubt, I am interested
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: in all things men forget, answered the poet, with a
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: fine touch of pride, but mostly in those like this
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: that are most easily forgotten. Somehow, from those two fir sentences,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Pump realized that these two eccentric aristocrats had unconsciously recognized
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: each other. The fact that it was unconscious seemed somehow
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to exclude him all the more. He stirred a little
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the moonlit dust of the road with his rather dilapidated boots,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and eventually strolled across to speak to the chauffeur. Is
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the next police station far from here? He asked. The
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: chauffeur answered with one syllable, of which the nearest literal
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: rendering is deno. Other spellings have been attempted, but the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: sentiment expressed as that of agnosticism. But something of special
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: brutality of abbreviation made the shrewd and therefore sensitive mister
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Pomp look at the man's face, and he saw it
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: was not only the moonlight that made it white, with
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: that dumb delicacy that was so English in him. Pump
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: looked at the man again and saw he was leaning
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: heavily on the car with one arm, and saw that
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: the arm was shaking. He understood his countrymen enough to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: know that whatever he said, he must say in a
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: careless manner. I hope it's nearer to your place. You
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: must be a bit done up. Ow hell, said the driver,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and spat on the road. Pump was sympathetically silent, and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: mister wimple chauffeur broke out incoherently, as if in another place,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: blarsted beauties of the break and no breakfast, blairstood, lunch,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: heavy wood and no lunch, blasted black, everlasting hour's outside
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: where he is a sich and champagne, and then it's
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a darkey. You don't mean to say, said Pump, in
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a very serious voice, that you've had no food to day?
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Ow No, replied the cockney, with the irony of the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: death bed. Ow, of course not. Pump strolled back into
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the road again, picked up the cheese in his left
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: hand and landed it on the seat beside the driver.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Then his right hand went to one of his large, loose,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: equivocal pockets, and the blade of a big jackknife caught
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and re caught the steady splendors of the moon. The
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: driver stared for several instants at the cheese, with the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: knife shaking in his hand. Then he began to hack it,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and in that white, witchlike light, the happiness of his
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: face was almost horrible. Pump was wise in all such things,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and knew that just as a little food will sometimes
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: prevent sheer intoxication, so a little stimulant will sometimes prevent
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: sudden and dangerous indigestion. It was practically impossible to make
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the man stop eating cheese. It was far better to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: give him a very little of the rum, especially as
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: it was a very good rum, and better than anything
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: he could find in any of the public houses that
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: were still permitted. He walked across the road again and
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: picked up the small cask, which he put on the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: other side of the cheese, and from which he filled
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: in his own manner. The little cop he carried in
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: his pocket. But at the sight of this, the cockney's
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: eyes lit up at once with terror and desire. But
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: you can't do it, he whispered hoarsely. It's the police.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: It's kau for that. With no doctor's letter, nor signboard
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: nor nutting, mister Humphrey Pump made yet another march back
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: into the road. When he got there, he hesitated for
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the first time, but it was quite clear from the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: attitude of the two insane aristocrats who were arguing and
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: posturing in the road that they would notice nothing except
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: each other. He picked the loose post off the road
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and brought it to the car, humorously propping it erect
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: in the aperture between keg and The little glass of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: rum was wavering in the poor chauffeur's hand, exactly as
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the big knife had done. But when he looked up
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: and actually saw the wooden sign above him, he seemed
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: not so much to pluck up his courage, but rather
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to drag up some forgotten courage from the foundations of
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: some unfathomable sea. It was indeed the forgotten courage of
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the people. He looked once at the bleak, black pine
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: woods around him, and took the mouthful of golden liquid
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: at a gulp, as if it were a fairy potion.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: He sat silent, and then very slowly a sort of
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: stony glitter began to come into his eyes. The brown
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and vigilant eyes of Humphrey Pomp were studying him with
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: some anxiety or even fear. He did look rather like
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a man enchanted or turned to stone. But he spoke
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: very suddenly the blighter. He said, I'll give him mal,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I'll give him bleeding al. I'll give him something what
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: he don't expect. What do you mean, asked the innkeeper. Why,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: answered the chauffeur with abrupt composure. I'll give him a
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: little donkey. Mister Pump looked troubled. Do you think, he observed,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: affecting to speak lightly, that he's fit to be trusted
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: even with a little donkey? Oh? Yes, said the man.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: He's very amiable with donkeys and donkeys we is to
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: be amiable with them. Pump still looked at him, doubtfully,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: appearing or affecting not to follow his meaning. Then he
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: looked equally anxious across at the other two men, but
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: they were still talking different As they were in every
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: other way. They were of the sort who forget everything class, choral, time,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: place and physical facts in front of them, and the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: lust of lucid explanation and equal argument. Thus, when the
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: captain began by lightly alluding to the fact that, after all,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: it was his donkey, since he had bought it from
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: a tinker for a just price. The police station practically
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: vanished from Wimple's mind, and I feared the donkey carte. Also,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: nothing remained but the necessity of dissipating the superstition of
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: personal property. I own nothing, said the poet, waving his
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: hands outward. I own nothing save in the sense that
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I own everything. It all depends whether wealth or power
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: be used for or against the higher purposes of the cosmos, indeed,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: replied Deli. And how does your motor car serve the
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: higher purposes of the cosmos? It helps me, said mister Wimpole,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: with honorable simplicity, to produce my poems. And if it
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: could be used for some higher purpose, if such a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: thing could be if some new purpose had come into
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the cosmos's head by accident, inquired the other. I suppose
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: it would cease to be your property, certainly, replied the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: dignified Dorian. I should not complain, nor have you any
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: title to complain, when the donkey ceases to be yours,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: when you depress it in the cosmic scale, What makes
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: you think asked Delroy, that I wanted to depress it.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: It is my firm belief, replied Dorian Wimpole, sternly, that
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: you wanted to ride on it. For indeed the captain
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: had once repeated his playful gesture of putting his large
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: leg across. Is not that so, no, answered the captain innocently.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I never ride on a donkey. I'm afraid of it.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Afraid of a donkey, cried Wempole, incredulously, afraid of anhistorical comparison,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: said Delroy. There was a short pause in Wimpole said
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: coolly enough. Oh well, we've outlived those comparisons easily, answered
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the Irish captain. It is wonderful, how easily when outlive
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: some one else's crucifixion. In this case, said the other grimly,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I think it is the donkey's crucifixion. Why you must
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: have drawn that old Roman caricature of the crucified donkey,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: said Patrick Delroy, with an air of some wonder how
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: well you have worn Why you look so young? Well,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: of course, if this donkey is crucified, he must be uncrucified.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: But are you quite sure, he added, very gravely, that
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: you know how to uncrucify a donkey. I assure you
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: it's one of the rarest of human arts, all a
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: matter of knack. It's like the doctor's with the rare diseases.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: You know, the necessity so seldom arises. Granted that by
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the higher purposes of the cosmos, I am unfit to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: look after this donkey, I must still feel a faint
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: shiver of responsibility in passing him on to you. Will
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you understand this donkey? He is a delicate minded donkey.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: He is a complex donkey. How can I be certain
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: that on so short and acquaint you will understand every
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: shade of a little likes and dislikes. The dog koodle,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: who had been sitting as still as the sphinx under
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the shadow of the pine trees, waddled out for an
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: instant into the middle of the road, and then returned.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: He ran out when a slight noise as of rotary grinding,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: was heard, and ran back when it had ceased. But
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Dorian Wimple was much too keen on his philosophical discovery
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: to notice either dog or wheel. I shall not sit
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: on its back, anyhow, he said proudly. But if that
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: were all, it would be a small matter. It is
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: enough for you that you have left it in the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: hands of the only person who could really understand it,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: one who searches the skies and seas so as not
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to neglect the smallest creature. This is a very curious creature,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: said the captain anxiously. He is all sorts of odd antipathius.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: He can't stand a motor car, for instance, especially one
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: that throbs like that while it's standing still. He doesn't
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: mind a fur coat so much, but if you wear
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: a brown velvet jacket under it, he bites you, and
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: you must keep him out of the way of a
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: certain kind of people. I don't suppose you've met them,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: but they always think that anybody with less than two
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: hundred years drunk and very cruel, and that anybody with
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: more than two thousand a year is conducting the day
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: of judgment. If you will keep our dear donkey from
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the society of such persons, Hello, Hello, Hello. He turned
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in genuine disturbance and dashed after the dog, who had
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: dashed after the motor car and jumped inside. The captain
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: jumped in after the dog to pull him out again,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: but before he could do so, he found the car
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: was flying along too fast for any such leap. He
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: looked up and saw the sign of the old ship
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: erect in the front like a rigid banner, and pump
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: with his cask and cheese sitting solidly beside the driver.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: The thing was more of an earthquake in transformation to
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: him even than to any of the others. But he
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: rose waveringly to his feet and shouted out to whimpole,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: You've left it in the right hands. I've never been
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: cruel to a motor. In the moonlight of the magic
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: pinewood far behind, Dorian and the donkey were left looking
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: at each other, to the mystical mind, when it is
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: a mind at all, which is by no means always
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the case, there are no two things more impressive and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: symbolical than a poet and a donkey. And the donkey
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: was a very gentle donkey, and the poet was a
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: very gentle poet. However lawfully he might be mistaken for
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the other animal at times, the interest of the donkey
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and the poet will never be known. The interest of
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the poet and the donkey was perfectly genuine and survived
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: even that appalling private interview in the owlish secrecy of
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the woods. But I think even the poet would have
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: been enlightened if he had seen the white, set, frantic
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: face of the man of the driver's seat of his
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: vanishing motor. If he had seen it, he might have
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: remembered the name, or perhaps even begun to understand the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: nature of a certain animal, which is neither the donkey
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: nor the oyster, but the creature whom man has always
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: found it easiest to forget, since the hour he forgot
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: God in a garden, end of Chapter fourteen.