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THE STORY
Part II
As he sat leaning with his head against
the wall of the cave, he was consuming a great deal of mental energy by trying
to overcome his sense of weariness, and by trying to ignore the demands of
physical appetites, and in this situation, he fell asleep.
When he awoke he heard the gentle
splashing of water, he arose to investigate and found a spring of water issuing
from the wall a few feet from him. His thirst was burning! Should he drink the
water? Was this thirst genuine, or was it a false sensation superimposed by the
thoughts of the Magician? He must get down to first principles and not be
thrown off at a tangent. The thing be had started out to do was not yet
accomplished and all the sensations and appearances that hindered him from
returning to the mouth of the cave were to be regarded as false and misleading,
but any sensation or appearance that contributed to his well-being, though he
knew it to be false, he would use if it were to his advantage to do so; for
example: after having calculated the unusual amount of exercise he had made in
coming through the rugged cave and the length of time he had been without
water, he concluded his thirst was genuine, but having noticed the absence of
water in the cave during the previous day, its presence was now an appearance
only, and if he drank or seemed to drink, and the seeming water quenched, or
seemed to quench his thirst, would this yielding to Marbado's suggested water
prevent him from reaching the mouth of the cave? Or, again, if the seeming
water appeared to quench his thirst, would not he be less fatigued than if he
tried to get along without the water or tried to think he was not thirsty?
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