ain the difficult passage in Genesis; and the early Christian
writers learnt it from the Jews, and it passed into many commentaries
which were written in later times; so that you may still see
representations of it carved in stone in churches, both in England
and elsewhere. In England it may be seen on the inside of the stone
roof of Norwich Cathedral, and on the west front of Wells Cathedral;
but you have to look carefully before you can find it.

There are other stories which pretend to explain texts that do not
seem so difficult. For instance, in the 18th Psalm there is a verse,
"Thou hast made room enough under me for to go." And about this there
is a long tale of how King David went to fight the giant Ishbi-benob,
and was nearly killed by him; for the giant took David and cast him
to the ground, and put a heavy wine-press upon him, which would have
crushed him, but that the earth beneath him suddenly became soft and
yielded room for his body, and thus room was made under him.

Then again, there are others which are like parables.

At this point I will put in two short stories of the parable-kind,
neither of which I think you are likely to have seen. One of them is
certainly taken from an apocryphal book which is lost; and the other
I suspect to have been taken either from the same book or from one
like it.

First I will tell the one about the source of which I am not certain.

In the days of King Hezekiah there was in Israel a rich man who was a
miser and gave nothing to the poor. But one day it happened that he
took up the book of the proverbs of King Solomon; and his eye fell
upon the place where it is said, "He that hath pity upon the poor,
lendeth unto the Lord; and look what he layeth out, it shall be paid
him again." "So," thought he to himself, "this is a good security!"
And forthwith he sold all that he had, and distributed the price
among the poor, keeping for himself only two pieces of money. But, to
his disappointment, he did not only become poor himself by this
means, but he remained poor. The money he had given away did not come
back, and no one else would give him any. So he was reduced to
despair, and said, "I will go straight to Jerusalem, and demand of
God why He has deceived me, and induced me to give away all my
possessions by promises that are false." And he set forth. And on his
way, not far from Jerusalem, he saw two men fighting, and said to
them, "Brethren, what is your quarrel?" And on