A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set
foot on it for the first time, virtues and vices floated around and
were bored, not knowing what to do. One day, all the vices and
virtues were gathered together and were more bored than ever.
Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea: "Let's play hide and
seek!" All of them liked the idea and immediately Madness shouted:
"I want to count, I want to count!"
And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek Madness, all the
others agreed. Madness leaned against a tree and started to count:
"One, two, three..." As Madness counted, the vices and virtues went
hiding.
Tenderness hung itself on the horn of the moon, Treason hid in a
pile of garbage. Fondness curled up between the clouds and Passion
went to the centre of the earth. Lie said that it would hide under
a stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake, whilst Avarice entered
a sack that he ended up breaking. And Madness continued to count:
"...seventy nine, eighty, eighty one..."
By this time, all the vices and virtues were already hidden -
except Love. For undecided as Love is, he could not decide where to
hide. And this should not surprise us, because we all know how
difficult it is to hide Love.
Madness: "...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven..."
Just when Madness got to one hundred, Love jumped into a rose bush
where he hid. And Madness turned around and shouted: "I'm coming,
I'm coming!" As Madness turned around, Laziness was the first to be
found,because Laziness had no energy to hide. Then he spotted
Tenderness in the horn of the moon, Lie at the bottom of the lake
and Passion at the centre of the earth. One by one, Madness found
them all - except Love.
Madness was getting desperate, unable to find Love. Envious of
Love, Envy whispered to Madness: "You only need to find Love, and
Love is hiding in the rose bush." Madness grabbed a wooden
pitchfork and stabbed wildly at the rose bush. Madness stabbed and
stabbed until a heartbreaking cry made him stop. Love appeared from
the rose bush, covering his face with his hands. Between his
fingers ran two trickles of blood from his eyes. Madness, so
anxious to find Love, had stabbed out Love's eyes with a
pitchfork.
"What have I done! What have I done!" Madness shouted.
"I have left you blind! How can I repair it?" And Love answered:
"You cannot repair my eyes. But if you want to do something for me,
you can be my guide."
And so it came about that from that day on, Love is blind and is
always accompanied by Madness