Such, it seemed, was the joy of man, either in elfland or on earth; the happiness depended on _not doing something_ which you could at any moment do and which, very often, it was not obvious why you should not do.

Now, the point here is that to _me_ this did not seem unjust.

If the miller's third son said to the fairy, "Explain why I must not stand on my head in the fairy palace," the other might fairly reply, "Well, if it comes to that, explain the fairy palace." If Cinderella says, "How is it that I must leave the ball at twelve ?" her godmother might answer, "How is it that you are going there till twelve ?" If I leave a man in my will ten talking elephants and a hundred winged horses, he cannot complain if the conditions partake of the slight eccentricity of the gift.

He must not look a winged horse in the mouth.

And it seemed to me that existence was itself so very eccentric a legacy that I could not complain of not understanding the limitations of the vision when I did not understand the vision they limited.