Dialogue Between A Squire And His Familiar Spirit

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A squire had dozed off under a tree. Next to him the loose horses were grazing the lawn. His sleep was disturbed only by a bee that occasionally went to rest on his nose. Until, the third time, the squire slapped his nose to chase the bee away.

Spirit: Squire, why did you wake me? I was sleeping inside your head.

Squire: Spirit! You are here! I have not seen you in a while. I’ve been spending my days taking care of the horses at the stable, and when I’m not doing that then I’m studying with the other fellow students at the castle. The abbots teach us about the world, how it is and how it should be, and we pore over books and geographic maps all day. Sometimes I feel so full of learning, overflowing with precepts, that I just need to unleash all there is in me. And so I run into the woods and find respite in nature, I wander, I pretend to become friends with the deer and the squirrels. Although nature seems to be uncaring sometimes. Just the other day, I was beaten by a rodent. Today, this bee wouldn’t leave me alone. We had also just prepared the decorations for the knights tournament yesterday, only for a squall to ruin everything. Why does mother nature seem so uncaring?

Spirit: A short man from Recanati, a small town in the Marche region of Italy, once told me the story of an Icelander who had traveled over most of the earth, and found himself one day in the heart of Africa where he met with Nature. The Icelander had been escaping the world, looking for a place to find respite from his sufferings. Not having found one, he tells Nature that he had concluded that human beings were destined to suffer much in proportion as they enjoy little, and that it is as impossible to live peacefully as happily. He also tells nature that he had concluded that she, Nature, was the avowed enemy of men. “Sometimes alluring, at other times menacing; now attacking, now striking, now pursuing, now destroying; you are always engaged in tormenting us,” he told her.

Squire: And what did Nature reply to him?

Spirit: “Thinkest thou then that the world was made for thee? It is time thou knewest that in my designs, operations, and decrees, I never gave a thought to the happiness or unhappiness of man. If I cause you to suffer, I am unaware of the fact; nor do I perceive that I can in any way give you pleasure. What I do is in no sense done for your enjoyment or benefit, as you seem to think. Finally, if I by chance exterminate your species, I should not know it.” This is what she replied.

You see, squire, what Nature was telling the Icelander is that it’s no use brooding about this or that, that whatever happens is by no means the act of a careless Nature, because she is in no way interested in facilitating or hindering any of your plans.

Therefore, shrug off that negativity and melancholy, free yourself of the burden imposed upon you by all those books, forget about the philosophical precepts, let go of your fears, and embrace the fact that everything is within your power.

Many times, when I was about your age, I would acquiesce to my conscience, convincing myself that my nihilism was not only psychological but also philosophical, and that as such I had more right to feel gloomy. In the first sense it was the awareness of my fears that created so much hesitation in acting; in the second case, the philosophical ‘drama’, the realization of the vanity of things and goals; and with this the awareness of having fulfilled many of these goals, and having found nothing but a simple aesthetical pleasure.

Squire: Spirit, tell me, is it true what they say, that you are going to fall into a deep sleep at some point, and that your body will then decompose until it becomes ashes and sinks into the soil and those ashes are then eaten by worms, until nothing else remains. And so will happen to those close to you, and as they also rot it will soon be as if they had never existed.

Spirit: Yes, and I’m proof of that.

And now I have a question for you: how much longer will you delay before you think yourself worthy of what is best, and transgress in nothing the distinction that reason imposes? You’ve acquired knowledge of the philosophical principles that you ought to accept, and have accepted them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for, that you should delay any effort to reform yourself until he appears?

It is very easy to make a life memorable, and that is to make the most out of every situation, and that is to follow the rules once established for himself. Lay down from this moment a certain character and pattern of behavior for yourself, which you are to preserve both when you are happy and when you are sad, both when you’ve alone and when you’re with others.

Now I will return to my sleep, speaking tires me. We will continue this conversation another time. Farewell.

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