shalt suddenly doubt whether these great deeds were; and there shall be
none to tell thee, only the echoes of the voices of the gods still
singing in thine ears when long ago They called the princes that were
thy friends. And thou shalt hear the knowledge of the olden time most
wrongly told and afterwards forgotten. Then many prophets shall arise
claiming discovery of that old knowledge. Then thou shalt find that
seeking knowledge is vain, as the chase is vain, as making merry is
vain, as all things are vain. One day thou shalt find that it is vain
to be a King. Greatly then will the acclamations of the people weary
thee, till the time when people grow aweary of Kings. Then thou shalt
know that thou hast been uprooted from thine olden time and set to live
in uncongenial years, and jests all new to royal ears shall smite thee
on the head like hailstones, when thou hast lost thy crown, when those
to whose grandsires thou hadst granted to bring them as children to kiss
the feet of the King shall mock at thee because thou hast not learnt to
barter with gold.

"Not all the marvels of the future time shall atone to thee for those
old memories that glow warmer and brighter every year as they recede
into the ages that the gods have gathered. And always dreaming of thy
long dead princes and of the great Kings of other kingdoms in the olden
time thou shalt fail to see the grandeur to which a hurrying jesting
people shall attain in that kingless age. Lastly, O King, thou shalt
perceive men changing in a way that thou shalt not comprehend, knowing
what thou canst not know, till thou shalt discover that these are men
no more and a new race holds dominion over the earth whose forefathers
were men. These shall speak to thee no more as they hurry upon a quest
that thou shalt never understand, and thou shalt know that thou canst
no longer take thy part in shaping destinies, but in a world of cities
only pine for air and the waving grass again and the sound of a wind in