A monarch said to a hermit, ''Come with me and I will give you power.'' ''I have all the power that I know how to use,'' replied the hermit. ''Come,'' said the king, ''I will give you wealth.'' ''I have no wants that money can supply.'' said the hermit. ''I will give you honor,'' said the monarch. ''Ah, honor cannot be given, it must be earned,'' was the hermit's answer. ''Come,'' said the king, making a last appeal, ''and I will give you happiness.'' ''No,'' said the man of solitude, ''there is no happiness without liberty, and he who follows cannot be free.'' ''You shall have liberty too,'' said the king. ''Then I will stay where I am,'' said the old man. And all the king's courtiers thought the hermit a fool.