From this cause it has been customary to
reveal the matter fully from father to son, at stated periods, and the
setting out of the particulars in written words has been severely
discouraged. Wise as this precaution certainly was, it has resulted in
a very inconvenient state of things; for a remote ancestor--the fifth
in line from the beginning--experienced such vicissitudes that he
returned from his travels in a state of most abandoned idiocy, and
when the time arrived that he should, in turn, communicate to his son,
he was only able to repeat over and over again the name of the pious
hermit to whom the family was so greatly indebted, coupling it each
time with a new and markedly offensive epithet. The essential details
of the undertaking having in this manner passed beyond recall,
succeeding generations, which were merely acquainted with the fact
that a very prosperous future awaited the one who fulfilled the
conditions, have in vain attempted to conform to them. It is not an
alluring undertaking, inasmuch as nothing of the method to be pursued
can be learned, except that it was the custom of the early ones, who
held the full knowledge, to set out from home and return after a
period of years.
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