pretense. And did any man say me nay, I would charge upon him like a
spear-point. Ah, Yoomy, thou and thy tribe have much to answer for; ye
stir up all Mardi with your lays. Your war chants make men fight; your
drinking songs, drunkards; your love ditties, fools. Yet there thou
sittest, Yoomy, gentle as a dove.--What art thou, minstrel, that thy
soft, singing soul should so master all mortals? Yoomy, like me, you
sway a scepter."

"Thou honorest my calling overmuch," said Yoomy, we minstrels but sing
our lays carelessly, my lord Media."

"Ay: and the more mischief they make."

"But sometimes we poets are didactic."

"Didactic and dull; many of ye are but too apt to be prosy unless
mischievous."

"Yet in our verses, my lord Media, but few of us purpose harm."

"But when all harmless to yourselves, ye may be otherwise to Mardi."

"And are not foul streams often traced to pure fountains, my lord?"
said Babbalanja. "The essence of all good and all evil is in us, not
out of us. Neither poison nor honey lodgeth in the flowers on which,
side by side, bees and wasps oft alight. My lord, nature is an
immaculate virgin, forever standing unrobed before us. True poets but
paint the charms which all eyes behold. The vicious would be vicious
without them."