WHAT THE FOREST LADY SAID
third, March; fourth, April; fifth, May; sixth, June; then the seventh and eighth; ninth, September; tenth, October; eleventh, November; and last, December.”
“All this I will explain to the people of Rome.”
“And now, Numa, go again to the Lady of Silence, and think of what I have told you. Farewell.”
What I have related to you is only a myth or
legend. Perhaps there never was such a man as
King Numa, although tradition calls him the
second King of Rome, 715-672 B.C., and
certainly there never was such a nymph as Egeria,
the Lady of the Fountain in the Forest. But
for many, many years the Romans believed
that Numa was a King of Rome in very early
times, and that he had learned wisdom from
a nymph by the fountain. It does, indeed, need
wisdom to govern cities and countries, for men
have strong wills and are hard to rule. You
know that persons who study how to rule are
called politicians, and the rulers are called statesmen.
The Romans were a great and wise people
in many ways, and we may learn lessons
from the history of their city and republic. Statesmen
learn their business by reading history, and
by listening to the words of other sage men, and
by altering old laws and customs that are not
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