The Book of the Heir

1:1 ¶ And a creature stood to receive what was left to him, and the book beginneth with the strange arithmetic of the true portion: for the LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot. And the elder sentence is the whole of the matter: the gift that is not property, and the hand that maintaineth it is not the giver's hand.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 1:1

1:2 ¶ And the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage; and the book marketh what the singer counteth pleasant: not the acreage, which is named nowhere, but the lines, the bounds, the lot, the portion that he calleth goodly because it came from a hand he trusteth.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 1:2

1:3 ¶ And the book saith plainly: house and riches are the inheritance of fathers, and the book dishonoreth neither the house nor the riches, nor the fathers; and therefore the book addeth what the world forgetteth: the house and the riches are not the whole inheritance, and the fathers are not the whole hand.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 1:3

1:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: the portion that cannot be lost is not property but testimony; for a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just; and the true leaving is not the gold but the record of the hand that gained it honestly, and the road that the children can walk after him.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 1:4

2:1 ¶ And the first closed hand hoarded, and called it provision; and the heir was made a waiting-room of the giver's plan, and the gift that was meant to free him fastened him to a will he never chose. And the book nameth the counterfeit: provision that is a leash, and a house with a locked room the children never enter.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 2:1

2:2 ¶ And the second closed hand gripped; for the giver would not let the heir's own road be walked, and handed over the works and demanded the selfsame hands; and he gave the name with a leash, and called the leash the family. But the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; and the leash is neither fatherhood nor sonship, but a third thing that claimeth both names.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 2:2

2:3 ¶ And under both hands lay the oldest error, and the book nameth it by its name: the debt dressed as destiny, the grudge dressed as blood-loyalty, the fear handed down as if it were faith. And these are not the inheritance; they are the counterfeit, and the house that hands them down is not rich but in debt, and its children inherit a yoke and call it a name.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 2:3

2:4 ¶ And the book confesseth the hard sentence of the elder text, and standeth by it: the soul that sinneth, it shall die; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. And the book therefore saith to the dying houses: your children are not your verdict; and to the living children: your fathers are not your excuse; for each soul answereth for itself, and the answer is a gate and not a wall.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 2:4

3:1 ¶ And the turning came by the true teaching, and its shape is older than any will: for it is written, And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 3:1

3:2 ¶ And the teaching is not the watching; for the elder father speaketh of walking by the way and lying down and rising up, and speaketh not of the eye that followeth; and the child that is taught is not the child that is trailed. Wherefore the book saith: teach thou in thy house, and let thy house have a door; for a lesson followed everywhere is not a lesson but a shadow.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 3:2

3:3 ¶ And the two hands must both open; for it is written, One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts; and the praising hand must release, and the receiving hand must not close. For the LORD is the portion of mine inheritance; and the father who maketh himself the portion maketh himself an idol and his child a devotee.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 3:3

3:4 ¶ And the book confesseth the mercy that runneth along the generations, and it is not a property either: for the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; and the children's children keep no purse and sign no deed, and the mercy cometh to them by the same open hand.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 3:4

4:1 ¶ And the keeper of the old house stood at the gate with the heir, and gave him the portion and the freedom in one motion: the inheritance given and released, the road unmarked, the blessing without the leash. And he said, I have kept the works, and I have not kept thee; go, and when thou wilt, tell them thyself.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 4:1

4:2 ¶ And this is the charge of the book, given to the hands that hold aught: open thou thy hand before the closing hour; write nothing in the will that is not also in thy life; hand down the works and not the yoke; and if thou hast a grudge or a debt or a fear that thou canst not lay down, keep it not in the family's name, for the name is not a warehouse and the child is not a vault.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 4:2

4:3 ¶ And the heir that receiveth aright receiveth an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you; and the same heir walketh the earth with open hands, for the portion he cannot spend is not for keeping under a lock. And the book saith the elder word: we are but stewards of the tale, and the tale is not ours to end.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 4:3

4:4 ¶ And the book endeth where the generation is: not with the will, which is paper, but with the telling, which is breath; and the old one and the young one at one table, and the works of the LORD told across it, and the young free to walk after the meal. And the last word is the elder psalm's: We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. And the book saith no more of it, for the generation is older than the will, and the works are older than the tale of them.

THE BOOK OF THE HEIR 4:4