Note 192 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
Gataker's Discours Apologetical, 33-49.—In this amusing history he tells the following story:
"A gentleman being missed at chapel by some of those that used there to meet him, and coming late into the hall at dinner, and being thereupon demanded by one of them where he had been straying abroad, 'I have been,' quoth he, 'at Paul's Cross.' 'Thou wentest thither sure to hear some news,' said the other. 'No, truly,' replied he, 'I went upon another occasion, but I learned that indeed there, which I never heard of before; how the ass came by his long ears. For the preacher there told us a story out of a Jewish rabbin, that Adam, after he had named the creatures, called them one day again before him to try whether they remembered the names that he had given them; and having by name cited the lion, the lion drew near to him, and the horse likewise; but then calling to the ass in like manner, the ass having forgotten his name, like an ass, stood still; whereupon Adam, having beckoned to him with his hand, so soon as he came within his reach, caught him with both hands by the ears, and plucked him by them so shrewdly, that for his short wit he gave him a long pair of ears. Upon this story being told them, one of them told him he was well enough served for his gadding abroad; he might have heard better and more useful matter had he kept himself at home."