Said Babbalanja, "Bear witness, ye gods! cries fervent old Bardianna,
that besides disclosures of good and evil undreamed of now, there will
be other, and more astounding revelations hereafter, of what has
passed in Mardi unbeheld."

"A truce to your everlasting pratings of old Bardianna," said King
Media; why not speak your own thoughts, Babbalanja? then would your
discourse possess more completeness; whereas, its warp and woof are of
all sorts,--Bardianna, Alla-Malolla, Vavona, and all the writers that
ever have written. Speak for yourself, mortal!"

"May you not possibly mistake, my lord? for I do not so much quote
Bardianna, as Bardianna quoted me, though he flourished before me; and
no vanity, but honesty to say so. The catalogue of true thoughts is
but small; they are ubiquitous; no man's property; and unspoken, or
bruited, are the same. When we hear them, why seem they so natural,
receiving our spontaneous approval? why do we think we have heard them
before? Because they but reiterate ourselves; they were in us, before
we were born. The truest poets are but mouth-pieces; and some men are
duplicates of each other; I see myself in Bardianna."

"And there, for Oro's sake, let it rest, Babbalanja; Bardianna in you,
and you in Bardianna forever!"



CHAPTER XXIII
What Manner Of Men The Tapparians Were