PART I--HOW THE CENTAUR TRAINED THE HEROES ON PELION



I have told you of a hero who fought with wild beasts and with wild
men; but now I have a tale of heroes who sailed away into a distant
land, to win themselves renown for ever, in the adventure of the
Golden Fleece.

Whither they sailed, my children, I cannot clearly tell. It all
happened long ago; so long that it has all grown dim, like a dream
which you dreamt last year. And why they went I cannot tell: some
say that it was to win gold. It may be so; but the noblest deeds
which have been done on earth have not been done for gold. It was
not for the sake of gold that the Lord came down and died, and the
Apostles went out to preach the good news in all lands. The
Spartans looked for no reward in money when they fought and died at
Thermopylae; and Socrates the wise asked no pay from his
countrymen, but lived poor and barefoot all his days, only caring
to make men good. And there are heroes in our days also, who do
noble deeds, but not for gold. Our discoverers did not go to make
themselves rich when they sailed out one after another into the
dreary frozen seas; nor did the ladies who went out last year to
drudge in the hospitals of the East, making themselves poor, that
they might be rich in noble works. And young men, too, whom you
know, children, and some of them of your own kin, did they say to
themselves, 'How much money shall I earn?' when they went out to
the war, leaving wealth, and comfort, and a pleasant home, and all
that money can give, to face hunger and thirst, and wounds and