[The Path of the King by John Buchan]@TWC D-Link book
The Path of the King

CHAPTER 6
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In the green singing world the pall lifted from his spirits.
The earth which God had made was assuredly bigger and better than man's philosophies.

"It would appear," he told himself, "that like the younger son in the tale, I am setting out to look for fortune." At an inn in the city of Orleans he examined his brother's gift.

It was a volume of careful manuscript, entitled Imago Mundi, and bearing the name of one Pierre d'Ailly, who had been Bishop of Cambray when the Countess Catherine was a child.

He opened it and read of many marvels--how that the world was round, as Pythagoras held, so that if a man travelled west he would come in time to Asia where the sun rose.
Philip brooded over the queer pages, letting his fancy run free, for he had been so wrapped up in the mysteries of man's soul that he had forgotten the mysteries of the earth which is that soul's place of pilgrimage.

He read of cities with silver walls and golden towers waiting on the discoverer, and of a river on whose banks "virescit sylva vitae." And at that phrase he fell to dreaming of his childhood, and a pleasant unrest stirred in his heart.


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