grey boar by night and took him in Orghoom river--only the King. Then
a new people that have not known the old deeds of the King nor fought and
chased with him, who dare not make merry with the King as did his long
dead princes. And all the while those princes that are dead growing dearer
and greater in thy memory, and all the while the men that served thee then
growing more small to thee. And all the old things fading and new things
arising which are not as the old things were, the world changing yearly
before thine eyes and the gardens of thy childhood overgrown. Because thy
childhood was in the olden years thou shalt love the olden years, but ever
the new years shall overthrow them and their customs, and not the will of
a King may stay the changes that the gods have planned for all the customs
of old. Ever thou shalt say 'This was not so,' and ever the new custom
shall prevail even against a King. When thou hast made merry a thousand
times thou shalt grow tired of making merry. At last thou shalt become
weary of the chase, and still old age shall not come near to thee to
stifle desires that have been too oft fulfilled; then, O King, thou shalt
be a hunter yearning for the chase but with nought to pursue that hath
not been oft overcome. Old age shall come not to bury thine ambitions in
a time when there is nought for thee to aspire to any more. Experience
of many centuries shall make thee wise but hard and very sad, and thou
shalt be a mind apart from thy fellows and curse them all for fools,
and they shall not perceive thy wisdom because thy thoughts are not
their thoughts and the gods that they have made are not the gods of the
olden time. No solace shall thy wisdom bring thee but only an increasing
knowledge that thou knowest nought, and thou shalt feel as a wise man
in a world of fools, or else as a fool in a world of wise men, when
all men feel so sure and ever thy doubts increase. When all that spake
with thee of thine old deeds are dead, those that saw them not shall
speak of them again to thee; till one speaking to thee of thy deeds of
valour add more than even a man should when speaking to a King, and thou