[IGSMAIL-0635] Something different - but not alien

[Francois]

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IGS Electronic Mail      Wed Jun 15  8:33:19 PDT 1994      Message Number 0635
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Author: Francois Rabelais
Subject: Something different - but not alien

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The text hereafter was borrowed from Francois Rabelais, a French writer of the
16th century. It is given to you by Martine Feissel, who is in debt to Bob King
for putting it into an English that is more pleasant to read.
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    "But," Pantagruel asked, "when will you be out of debt?"  

    "When everyone is content," Panurge answered.  "When you will be your own 
heir, that is, never. God prevent me from becoming free of debts. Who does 
not leave leaven at night will get no bread in the morning...

     "Always owe to someone. He will continually ask God to give you a good, 
happy and long life, for he will fear losing his due. He will say good things 
about you everywhere, he will find you new creditors, to enable you to dig 
here and fill up there with somebody else's soil.
           
    "And you want to drag me out of this cosy bliss? You ask me when I will 
be free of debts?  Even worse, all my life I considered that debts are a kind 
of link and union between heaven and earth, a unique way of maintaining the
human race.  Without them, all human beings would soon perish. In my view, 
they are the very soul of universe.
           
     "To understand how much this is true, try to imagine an ideal world 
with no debtors or creditors, a debtless world.  There, none of the 
celestial bodies will have a regular course.  All will be out of track. 
Jupiter, having no debt to Saturn, will deprive him of his influence, 
Saturn will join Mars and together they will turn this world up side down.
Mercury will not serve the others anymore: he was not their debtor.  Venus 
will not be venerated - she will not have lent to anyone.  Moon will remain 
bleeding and gloomy: why should Sun give him his light?  He was not bound 
in any way. There will be no interaction between elements, no transmutation: 
one will not consider being obliged to any other - he had not lent him 
anything.  Earth will not give water, water will not become air, air will 
not help fire, fire will not heat Earth. Earth will produce only monsters; 
there will be no rain, no light, no blowing winds, no summer, no fall.  
              
     "This non-lending world will be a dog's world. No one will save any 
one; you could cry 'Help! Fire! Flood! Murder!', no one will bring you 
assistance.  Why so?  You had not lent, no one owed you.  Who cares about 
your burning, your wreckage, your ruin, your death.  You had not lent, 
you would not lend later.

     "Soon from this world will be banished Faith, Hope and Charity, for 
men are born to help and assist each other.  In their place will come 
Distrust, Disdain, Resentment, and with it the troop of all evils, all 
curses, all miseries.  Man will be a wolf to man.

     "And if, on the model of this unpleasant and tiresome non-lending 
world, you consider the human body, this other world, you will find chaos.
The head will refuse to lend its eyes to guide the feet and hands.  
Feet will not agree to bear it.  The hands will no longer work for it.  
The heart will begrudge sending pulses to the limbs and will no longer help. 
The lung will not lend the heart its bellows.  The liver will no longer 
care to clear blood. The bladder will not want to owe to the kidneys: 
urine will be suppressed. Brains, judging the body no longer in nature's 
rhythm, will go astray and give no feeling to the nerves nor motion to the 
muscles.  In sum, this unsettled world, which owes nothing, which lends 
nothing, which borrows nothing, will at once go rotten, the deeply upset 
soul will go to hell, after my money.

	"On the opposite consider another world, where everyone lends, 
everyone owes, all are debtors, all are lenders. Oh the harmony among 
the regular sky motions!  It seems to me I am hearing it as well as Plato 
did. What a sympathy among the elements! How Nature will enjoy its 
achievements! I am lost in the contemplation of it.  Among humans, peace, 
love, friendship, faithfulness, rest, banquets, feasts, joy, jubilation, 
gold, silver, small change, chains, rings, merchandise will hop from hand 
to hand.  No trials, no wars, no disputes; no one will be greedy, no one 
stingy, no one withdrawing to himself. Oh happy world! Oh happy people of 
this world, each lending to each, refusing nothing! For Nature has created 
man only for lending and borrowing.   

	"Oh God! I am overwhelmed, I am lost, I am out of my mind when I enter 
the deep abyss of this lending and owing world.  Trust that to lend is a 
heavenly act, and to owe is a heroic virtue."
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[Mailed From: feissel at iap.fr]