Little
Prince Table of Contents
He found himself in the neighborhood of the asteroids 325, 326,
327, 328, 329, and 330. He began, therefore, by visiting them,
in order to add to his knowledge. The first of them was inhabited
by a king. Clad in royal purple and ermine, he was seated upon
a throne which was at the same time both simple and majestic.
"Ah!
Here is a subject," exclaimed the king, when he saw the little
prince coming. And the little prince asked himself: "How could
he recognize me when he had never seen me before?"
He
did not know how the world is simplified for kings. To them, all
men are subjects. "Approach, so that I may see you better," said
the king, who felt consumingly proud of being at last a king over
somebody.
The
little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but
the entire planet was crammed and obstructed by the king's magnificent
ermine robe. So he remained standing upright, and, since he was
tired, he yawned.
"It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king,"
the monarch said to him. "I forbid you to do so."
"I
can't help it. I can't stop myself," replied the little prince,
thoroughly embarrassed.
"I
have come on a long journey, and I have had no sleep..."
"Ah,
then," the king said. "I order you to yawn. It is years since
I have seen anyone yawning. Yawns, to me, are objects of curiosity.
Come, now! Yawn again! It is an order."
"That frightens me... I cannot, any more..." murmured the little
prince, now completely abashed.
"Hum!
Hum!" replied the king. "Then I... I order you sometimes to yawn
and sometimes to" He sputtered a little, and seemed vexed. For
what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority
should be respected. He tolerated no disobedience. He was an absolute
monarch. But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders
reasonable.
"If
I ordered a general," he would say, by way of example, "if I ordered
a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general
did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general. It
would be my fault."
"May I sit down?" came now a timid inquiry from the little prince.
"I order you to do so," the king answered him, and majestically
gathered in a fold of his ermine mantle. But the little prince
was wondering... The planet was tiny. Over what could this king
really rule?
"Sire,"
he said to him, "I beg that you will excuse my asking you a question"
"I
order you to ask me a question," the king hastened to assure him.
"Sire, over what do you rule?" "Over everything," said the king,
with magnificent simplicity.
"Over
everything?" The king made a gesture, which took in his planet,
the other planets, and all the stars. "Over all that?" asked the
little prince. "Over all that," the king answered. For his rule
was not only absolute: it was also universal. "And the stars obey
you?" "Certainly they do," the king said. "They obey instantly.
I do not permit insubordination."
Such
power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had
been master of such complete authority, he would have been able
to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two,
or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, with out ever having
to move his chair. And because he felt a bit sad as he remembered
his little planet which he had forsaken, he plucked up his courage
to ask the king a favor:
"I
should like to see a sunset... do me that kindness... Order the
sun to set..."
"If
I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly,
or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird,
and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received,
which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The
general, or myself?"
"You,"
said the little prince firmly.
"Exactly.
One much require from each one the duty which each one can perform,"
the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason.
If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the
sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require
obedience because my orders are reasonable."
"Then
my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot
a question once he had asked it.
"You
shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to
my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable."
"When will that be?" inquired the little prince. "Hum! Hum!" replied
the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky
almanac. "Hum! Hum! That will be about... about... that will be
this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how
well I am obeyed."
The
little prince yawned. He was regretting his lost sunset. And then,
too, he was already beginning to be a little bored. "I have nothing
more to do here," he said to the king. "So I shall set out on
my way again." "Do not go," said the king, who was very proud
of having a subject. "Do not go. I will make you a Minister!"
"Minister of what?" "Minster of...of Justice!" "But there is nobody
here to judge!" "We do not know that," the king said to him. "I
have not yet made a complete tour of my kingdom. I am very old.
There is no room here for a carriage. And it tires me to walk."
"Oh, but I have looked already!" said the little prince, turning
around to give one more glance to the other side of the planet.
On
that side, as on this, there was nobody at all... "Then you shall
judge yourself," the king answered. "that is the most difficult
thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than
to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then
you are indeed a man of true wisdom."
"Yes,"
said the little prince, "but I can judge myself anywhere. I do
not need to live on this planet. "Hum! Hum!" said the king. "I
have good reason to believe that somewhere on my planet there
is an old rat. I hear him at night. You can judge this old rat.
From time to time you will condemn him to death. Thus his life
will depend on your justice. But you will pardon him on each occasion;
for he must be treated thriftily. He is the only one we have."
"I,"
replied the little prince, "do not like to condemn anyone to death.
And now I think I will go on my way." "No," said the king. But
the little prince, having now completed his preparations for departure,
had no wish to grieve the old monarch. "If Your Majesty wishes
to be promptly obeyed," he said, "he should be able to give me
a reasonable order. He should be able, for example, to order me
to be gone by the end of one minute. It seems to me that conditions
are favorable..." As the king made no answer, the little prince
hesitated a moment.
Then,
with a sigh, he took his leave. "I made you my Ambassador," the
king called out, hastily. He had a magnificent air of authority.
"The
grown-ups are very strange," the little prince said to himself,
as he continued on his journey.
Go
to Chapter 11
