Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/113

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THE PROLOGUE.
17

lyke to the blinde man, that wanting his ſight, taketh vpon him to go ouer Mountaynes, Hilles, and Dales, through moſt daungerous and perillous wayes. He therefore that doth reade muſt vnderſtand what he readeth, and why he readeth it: and not to be ſo defirous to come to the ende, that he marke not the beginning, and forget the ſenſe (full of knowledge) lincked with the middeſt and end. For he that readeth ſo, readeth without fruite, and rather troubleth the minde, and wearieth his body than otherwiſe, not forcing the benefite and knowledge of the truth. Folow therefore theſe graue precepts and ruled order, and let no vaine thoughts poſſeſſe your mindes to withdraw you from reading it. For to finde ſo riche a treaſure, and not to know how to take and laye it vp: is rightly to folow him, that finding a Maſſe of Golde and Siluer, had not the wyt to take it, and cary it away.

Of a Huſbandeman, and of the treaſure he founde.

A Husbandman of Perſia going one daye to plough his lande, by chaunce stumbled of a marveylous treasure, fyndinge store of pottes of

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