The Wishes

The Wishes by Jean de La Fontaine

In the Great Mogul’s domains, a domestic sprite faithfully tends a burgher’s house and garden near the Ganges. Though naturally inclined to roam, he remains devoted to his master and mistress until his chief orders him to leave for a distant house in Norway. Before departing, he grants the couple three wishes. They first ask for abundance: full barns, cellars, coffers, larders, livestock, wine, money, and every sort of plenty. Wealth soon becomes a burden, bringing inventories, anxiety, endless labor, theft, loans, taxes, and demands from the poor. Regretting their prosperity, they use their second wish to send their riches away and restore dear Mediocrity and peaceful contentment. Having spent two wishes merely to return to their former condition, the couple and the goblin laugh at their mistake. Before he leaves, they use the remaining opportunity to ask for wisdom and wealth of mind, a treasure free from care, sorrow, fear of the future, theft, begging, and borrowing.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Poetry, Moral Allegory · 793 words

First lines

Within the Great Mogul's domains there are / Familiar sprites of much domestic use: / They sweep the house, and take a tidy care / Of equipage, nor garden work refuse; / But, if you meddle with their toil, / The whole, at once, you're sure to spoil. / One, near the mighty Ganges flood, / The garden of a burgher good / Work'd noiselessly and well; / To master, mistress, garden, bore / A love that time and toil outwore, / And bound him like a spell. / Did friendly zephyrs blow, / The demon's pains to aid? / (For so they do, 'tis said.) / I own I do not know. / But for himself he rested not, / And richly bless'd his master's lot. / What mark'd his strength of love, / He lived a fixture on the place, / In spite of tendency to rove / So natural to his race. / But brother sprites conspiring / With importunity untiring, / So teased their goblin chief, that he, / Of his caprice, or policy, / Our sprite commanded to attend / A house in Norway's farther end, / Whose roof was snow-clad through the year, / And shelter'd human kind with deer. / Before departing to his hosts / Thus spake this best of busy ghosts: -- / 'To foreign parts I'm forced to go! / For what sad fault I do not know; -- / But go I must; a month's delay, / Or week's perhaps, and I'm away. / Seize time; three wishes make at will; / For three I'm able to fulfil -- / No more. ' Quick at their easy task, / Abundance first these wishers ask -- / Abundance, with her stores unlock'd -- / Barns, coffers, cellars, larder, stock'd -- / Corn, cattle, wine, and money, -- / The overflow of milk and honey. / But what to do with all this wealth! / What inventories, cares, and worry! / What wear of temper and of health! / Both lived in constant, slavish hurry. / Thieves took by plot, and lords by loan; / The king by tax, the poor by tone. / Thus felt the curses which / Arise from being rich, -- / 'Remove this affluence! ' they pray; / The poor are happier than they / Whose riches make them slaves. / 'Go, treasures, to the winds and waves; / Come, goddess of the quiet breast, / Who sweet'nest toil with rest, / Dear Mediocrity, return! ' / The prayer was granted as we learn. / Two wishes thus expended, / Had simply ended / In bringing them exactly where, / When they set out they were. / So, usually, it fares / With those who waste in such vain prayers / The time required by their affairs. / The goblin laugh'd, and so did they. / However, ere he went away, / To profit by his offer kind, / They ask'd for wisdom, wealth of mind, -- / A treasure void of care and sorrow -- / A treasure fearless of the morrow, / Let who will steal, or beg, or borrow.

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French fable · seventeenth-century literature · moral allegory · Great Mogul's domains · Ganges River · domestic sprite · goblin · three wishes · wish fulfillment · wealth and poverty · burdens of prosperity · contentment

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The Wishes is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 CE.

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