[Aquiles_Baesta_Parada]

Don Quixote de la Mancha - Miguel de Cervantes
Written in 1605 (part one), 1615 (part two).

I want to share with you guys one small passage that has stayed with me since I first read this book many years ago, I believe I was 18 when I read it.
Hope you guys like it.

Part Two | XVIII | About what happened to don Quixote in the castle of the Knight of the Green Coat, with other extravagant things

Synopsis: Don Quixote finds himself in the house of don Diego, where he meets don Lorenzo (don Diego's son). Don Lorenzo asks don Quixote about his education:

DL: It seems that you have studied at the university. What was your major?

DQ: It was knight errantry, which is as good as poetry, and even a bit better

DL: I don't know what that branch of knowledge is, and until this moment I've never heard of it

DQ: It is an area that encompasses all or most of the sciences in the world, because he who professes it must be an expert in legal matters and know laws of distributive and commutative justice, so as to give every person what he is due and what is fitting. He has to be a theologian(1) so he can communicate clearly and distinctly the Christian faith that he professes whenever he is asked. He has to be a doctor, mainly an herbalist(2), so that he can recognize in unpopulated areas and the wilderness which herbs have the property to heal wounds, since knight errants cannot go looking for someone to treat him at every step of the way. He has to be an astronomer to be able to tell by looking at the stars how many hours have gone by at night, and to tell what part of the world he is in. He has to know math because he will need it all the time, not to mention that he should be endowed with all of the virtues, theological(3) and cardinal(4). Coming down to lesser details, he has to be able to swim as they say the merman Nicolas(5) did. He has to know how to shoe a horse and repair a saddle and a bridle. And coming back to more important matters, he has to be faithful to God, and to his lady. He has to be chaste in his thoughts, pure in his words, liberal with others, valiant in his deeds, patient in his travails, charitable with the needy, and finally, keeper of truth, even though it may cost him his life to defend it. Of all these great and small parts is made the good knight errant. Now your grace can judge for yourself, señor don Lorenzo, if what the knight studies and professes is a puerile field, or if it can equal the most elevated ones that schools teach.

(1) Theology - Study of religious faith, practice and experience. (2) A person who collects or deals in herbs, especially medicinal herbs. (3) Theological virtues: Faith, hope and charity. (4) Cardinal virtues: Justice, prudence, fortitude and temperance.
(5) Italian leyend. Half man, half fish

[getdownonit]

You should have continued the passage:

"If that be so," replied Don Lorenzo, "this science, I protest, surpasses all."

"How, if that be so?" said Don Quixote.

"What I mean to say," said Don Lorenzo, "is, that I doubt whether there are now, or ever were, any knights-errant, and adorned with such virtues."

"Many a time," replied Don Quixote, "have I said what I now say once more, that the majority of the world are of opinion that there never were any knights-errant in it; and as it is my opinion that, unless heaven by some miracle brings home to them the truth that there were and are, all the pains one takes will be in vain (as experience has often proved to me), I will not now stop to disabuse you of the error you share with the multitude. All I shall do is to pray to heaven to deliver you from it, and show you how beneficial and necessary knights-errant were in days of yore, and how useful they would be in these days were they but in vogue; but now, for the sins of the people, sloth and indolence, gluttony and luxury are triumphant."

"Our guest has broken out on our hands," said Don Lorenzo to himself at this point; "but, for all that, he is a glorious madman, and I should be a dull blockhead to doubt it."

Don Lorenzo is highly skeptical of don Quixote, and considers him a crazy man from the beginning to end of their interaction, like most people Quixote meets. Quixote, meanwhile, knows what is right, even if he is a bit loony, and will risk his life for it.

What an unparalleled work of literature.

Masterfully written Spanish language text.

«Hasta ahora —dijo entre sí don Lorenzo— no os podré yo juzgar por loco. Vamos adelante.» Y díjole:

—Paréceme que vuesa merced ha cursado las escuelas: ¿qué ciencias ha oído21?

—La de la caballería andante —respondió don Quijote—, que es tan buena como la de la poesía, y aun dos deditos más.

—No sé qué ciencia sea esa —replicó don Lorenzo—, y hasta ahora no ha llegado a mi noticia.

—Es una ciencia —replicó don Quijote— que encierra en sí todas o las más ciencias del mundo, a causa que el que la profesa ha de ser jurisperito y saber las leyes de la justicia distributiva y comutativa22, para dar a cada uno lo que es suyo y lo que le conviene; ha de ser teólogo, para saber dar razón de la cristiana ley que profesa, clara y distintamente, adondequiera que le fuere pedido; ha de ser médico, y principalmente herbolario23, para conocer en mitad de los despoblados y desiertos las yerbas que tienen virtud de sanar las heridas, que no ha de andar el caballero andante a cada triquete buscando quien se las cure24; ha de ser astrólogo, para conocer por las estrellas cuántas horas son pasadas de la noche y en qué parte y en qué clima del mundo se halla; ha de saber las matemáticas, porque a cada paso se le ofrecerá tener necesidad dellas; y dejando aparte que ha de estar adornado de todas las virtudes teologales y cardinales25, decendiendo a otras menudencias, digo que ha de saber nadar como dicen que nadaba el peje Nicolás o Nicolao26, ha de saber herrar un caballo y aderezar la silla y el freno, y, volviendo a lo de arriba, ha de guardar la fe a Dios y a su dama; ha de ser casto en los pensamientos, honesto en las palabras, liberal en las obras, valiente en los hechos, sufrido en los trabajos, caritativo con los menesterosos y, finalmente, mantenedor de la verdad, aunque le cueste la vida el defenderla. De todas estas grandes y mínimas partes se compone un buen caballero andante. Porque vea vuesa merced, señor don Lorenzo, si es ciencia mocosa lo que aprende el caballero que la estudia y la profesa27, y si se puede igualar a las más estiradas que en los ginasios y escuelas se enseñan28.

—Si eso es así —replicó don Lorenzo—, yo digo que se aventaja esa ciencia a todas.

—¿Cómo si es así? —respondió don Quijote.

—Lo que yo quiero decir —dijo don Lorenzo— es que dudo que haya habido, ni que los hay ahora, caballeros andantes y adornados de virtudes tantas.

—Muchas veces he dicho lo que vuelvo a decir ahora —respondió don Quijote—: que la mayor parte de la gente del mundo está de parecer de que no ha habido en él caballeros andantes; y por parecerme a mí que si el cielo milagrosamente no les da a entender la verdad de que los hubo y de que los hay, cualquier trabajo que se tome ha de ser en vano, como muchas veces me lo ha mostrado la experiencia, no quiero detenerme agora en sacar a vuesa merced del error que con los muchos tiene29: lo que pienso hacer es rogarIV al cielo le saque dél y le dé a entender cuán provechosos y cuán necesariosV fueron al mundo los caballeros andantes en los pasados siglos, y cuán útiles fueran en el presente si se usaran; pero triunfan ahora, por pecados de las gentes, la pereza, la ociosidadVI, la gula y el regalo.