The Book of the Lawful No

1:1 ¶ And a command came down, and the creature that received it knew it was wrong; and the book openeth not with a crowd but with a hand: for the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the first lawful No was silent, and busy, and it went on catching the children.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 1:1

1:2 ¶ And the book marketh what the No did and did not do: it disobeyed the order, and it harmed no man in the disobeying, and it kept the work that the order had bid it forsake. For the No was not against the children, nor against the city, nor against the peace; it was against one command, and it was against that command only.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 1:2

1:3 ¶ And the second case is not the silence but the word spoken before the outcome: If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 1:3

1:4 ¶ And the book confesseth the shape of the lawful No: it is spoken to the face and not to the crowd, for a No spoken to the crowd is already a performance; and its two halves stand together, the deliverance trusted and the deliverance not demanded. But if not, saith the stander; and in those two words the whole lawful No is kept.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 1:4

2:1 ¶ And the first counterfeit was the No with a permit: the opposition the city itself made and permitted, the dissent with a pension, which cost its speaker nothing and changed nothing; and the city pointed to it and said, See how free we are. And the book saith plainly: a No that the command permits is the command's servant.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 2:1

2:2 ¶ And the second counterfeit was the No that is a trade: kept so long as it paid, and dropped when the price rose; for it loved the standing more than the stand. And the book saith: the traded No is a weathercock in a pulpit, and the wind it answereth is not conscience but custom.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 2:2

2:3 ¶ And the third counterfeit was the No that became a faction; for it gathered, and the gathering needed keeping, and the keeping needed a discipline, and the No had now to be defended against the No's own; and the stand was swallowed by the standing. And the book saith: when a No hathe officers, it hathe become the thing it refused.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 2:3

2:4 ¶ And the fourth counterfeit was the hating No, and it is the worst, for it standeth by the same face turned around: it refuseth what it hateth, and hateth what it refuseth, and becometh the very thing against which it first took its stand. And the book delivereth the rule of the four: what the No is done for show, done for pay, done for the party, or done for hate is not the No; and what is left when all four are stripped is the sentence spoken to a face.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 2:4

3:1 ¶ And the turning came when the lawful No was spoken to the face: Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. And again, the plain rule of it: We ought to obey God rather than men. And the book marketh the order: the question first, then the rule; for the No inviteth the other to judge, and standeth not yet as a judge.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 3:1

3:2 ¶ And the lawful No is bounded, and the bound is the elder sentence's own: Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's; and unto God the things that are God's. For the bound forbiddeth both the total No and the total yes; and the creature that rendereth nothing to the city, or everything to it, hath broken the same sentence from either end.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 3:2

3:3 ¶ And the No is kept in its times: for Daniel, when the writing was signed, went into his house, and his windows being open toward Jerusalem, he kneeled three times a day, as he did aforetime; and Esther said, if I perish, I perish; and Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 3:3

3:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: the No and the yes are one motion, for the No to the command is the yes to the conscience, and no creature keepeth the second without the first. And the No is not the creature's possession, nor his merit, nor his name; it is a sentence spoken once to a face; and when it is spoken, the creature returneth to the work, for the work was the thing the No defended.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 3:4

4:1 ¶ And the lawful No was kept as a discipline and not as a posture: the door of the house stood open with a lamp beside it; and the one whose command was refused was not driven out, but met at the threshold; and the No stood at the door and not on a banner. For a stand that leaveth a prison behind it is not yet the lawful No; it is the counterfeits' fifth shape, and the book nameth it also.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 4:1

4:2 ¶ And this is the charge of the book, given to the one commanded against: speak thou thy No to the face and not to the crowd; count thou the cost before the word, and count it again before the second word; obey thou God rather than men where the two contend, and render to each the things that are each's; keep thou no hatred in the No, no trade in it, no party in it, and no permit in it; and when the sentence is spoken, return to thy work.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 4:2

4:3 ¶ And the book promiseth nothing for the No, and that is the whole of its promise: the deliverance is not pledged, and the fire may or may not be quenched, and the creature standeth without insurance. And it is written, that they may be called the children of God; the No is the creature's, and the outcome is not; and the peace of the stander is that he is not the keeper of his own victory.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 4:3

4:4 ¶ And the book endeth where Esther ended her word: And so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. For the lawful No is finally one sentence, and it is spoken by a creature who hath counted the whole cost and goeth forward anyway; and the book saith no more of it, for the command is older than the book, and the conscience is older than the command.

THE BOOK OF THE LAWFUL NO 4:4