第24章 法律和立法

幾百年前，有個偉大的國王，他是個賢明的人。他要給他的子民制訂法律。 他從一千個不同的部落，邀請一千個賢人，到他的京城來製訂法律。 這一切都照辦了。 然而，寫在羊皮紙上的一千條法律，呈送到國王面前，國王——一審閱之時，內心深處倒辛酸地哭泣了，因為他不曾料到，在他的王國之內，竟有一千種犯罪的勾當。 於是國王召來他的書吏，嘴角邊帶著微笑親自口授法律。國王制訂的法律只有七條。 卻說那一千個賢人憤憤地離別國王，帶著他們自己制訂的法律回到他們各自的部落裡去了。每個部落都實施它自己的賢人所製訂的法律。 因此，他們直至今天都有一千條法律。 這是一個大國，但它有一千個監獄，獄中充滿了觸犯一千條法律的男男女女。

這確實是一個偉大的國家，然而，這個國家裡的人民，乃是一千個立法者和僅僅一個賢明的國王的後裔。 Laws And Law-Giving Ages ago there was a great king, and he was wise. And he desired to lay laws unto his subjects. He called upon one thousand wise men of one thousand different tribes to his capitol and lay down the laws. And all this came to pass.

But when the thousand laws written upon parchment were put before the king and he read them, he wept bitterly in his soul, for he had not known that there were one thousand forms of crime in his kingdom. Then he called his scribe, and with a smile upon his mouth he himself dictated laws. And his laws were but seven.

And the one thousand wise men left him in anger and returned to their tribes with the laws they had laid down. And every tribe followed the laws of its wise men. Therefore they have a thousand laws even to our own day. It is a great country, but it has one thousand prisons, and the prisons are full of women and men, breakers of a thousand laws.

It is indeed a great country, but the people thereof are descendants of one thousand law-givers and of only one wise king.