He
did not want them to turn to other studies, or to eschew pleasures; but,
in those studies, to seek the highest things most, and other things in
proportion to their true worth and nobleness. This could not fail to be
distasteful to those who did not care for what was higher than they. And
so matters went on for a time. They thought they could do better without
their brother; and their brother knew they could not do at all without
him, and tried to fulfil the charge committed into his hands.
"At length, one day, for the thought seemed to strike them simultaneously,
they conferred together about giving a great entertainment in their
grandest rooms to any of their neighbours who chose to come, or indeed to
any inhabitants of the earth or air who would visit them. They were too
proud to reflect that some company might defile even the dwellers in what
was undoubtedly the finest palace on the face of the earth. But what made
the thing worse, was, that the old tradition said that these rooms were to
be kept entirely for the use of the owner of the castle.
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