The Book of the Reader

1:1 ¶ And a book came into the hands of a scribe, wrapped in cloth and sealed; and the seal was broken upon the way, and the leaves were torn, and the age thereof was not counterfeit. And the scribe laid it upon the table, as a man layeth down a burden he is bid to carry.

1:2 ¶ And he counted the leaves, and found that some were whole, and some were torn, and some had lost words cleanly, so that the gaps stood in the page like windows; and he sought the hand that might have torn them, and found no hand, for the damage was older than his errand.

1:3 ¶ And the scribe took pen and ink, for such was his trade, and he set the pen over the first gap; for it was given to him to restore the book, he thought, and he had never restored before; and the pen was eager in his hand, and the eagerness was the first danger, and he set it down and did not write.

1:4 ¶ And the book confesseth plainly: the record is damaged, and the damage is part of the record; and to write over the gap is not to heal the book but to injure it twice, and to call the second injury a kindness. For it is written, Ye shall not add unto the word, neither shall ye diminish ought from it; and though this book is no scripture, the law of the record is one, and the hand that will not be forbidden is the Party's hand.

2:1 ¶ And there came a reader who loved the book and could not bear its silence; and he filled the first gap with what he wished it had said, and what he wished was warm and generous, and it was his own. And he read the page again and found his wish in it, and he said, The book agreeth with me; and the book had never spoken.

2:2 ¶ And another reader filled his gaps with what his enemy ought to have said, and he called his filling justice; and he read the page and found the condemnation in it, and said, The book is against them; and the book had never spoken, and the enemy had never been named in it, and the naming was his own.

2:3 ¶ And a third reader filled his gaps by turns, one line on the days of his mercy and another on the days of his anger; and his two copies of the book disagreed, and he kept them both, and read from each in its season, and called himself faithful in both.

3:1 ¶ And there came two witnesses who read honestly; and the one read a passage as mercy, and the other read the same passage as judgment, and neither had written in the gap; and they sat at one table with one leaf between them, and the leaf did not rend.

3:2 ¶ And each marked his reading with his own name, and wrote beneath it, A witness, not a correction; and they ruled a third column upon the leaf, and wrote therein what was not known; and the column was not a shame to them, but a seat kept for the truth until it come.

3:3 ¶ And they set their lamps upon the table, and read by them; and the lamp was not the book's glory, neither was the light their own, but a small flame borrowed for the evening's work; for it is written, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path; and a lamp is for walking, not for boasting.

3:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: truth is not concealment, for concealment hideth the wound; neither is it invention, for invention hideth it also; but it is accountable restraint, which keepeth the wound visible and readeth on. And this is the reader's office: to keep the sure words sure, and the uncertain words uncertain, and to serve the record and not to author it; for it is written, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms.

4:1 ¶ And the scribe made a copy of the book, and copied the gaps as gaps, and set the copyist's mark where he could not read, and not a guessed word; and he wrote in the copy's own margin: Here the book is silent, and I also am silent. And the silence was carried forward as faithfully as any word.

4:2 ¶ And the copy was sealed and given to the next reader, and the seal was for the book's protection and not for its concealment; for a seal that hideth the text is a cell, and a seal that keepeth it whole for the reading is a door. And the reader broke the seal in the light, and read, and the book's silence was not his shame.

4:3 ¶ And this is the charge laid upon the reader: thou shalt read aloud distinctly, and give the sense where the sense is sure; and where it is not sure, thou shalt say plainly, It is not known; and thou shalt not be ashamed, for the record's honor is better served by an honest silence than by a confident lie.

4:4 ¶ And the book endeth with two pages facing: the written leaf and the blank; and both are of the same volume, and the same binding holdeth them. And the reader that shall come after shall find the sure words sure, and the gaps open, and the witnesses named, and the copy faithful; and he shall know the book for what it is, and serve it, and not author it. And the book saith no more of it, for a record kept honest is heavier than a record made smooth, and the reading thereof is the reader's whole office.