Of the Impressions of Education
I
A certain nobleman had a dunce of a son. He sent him to a learned man,
saying: "Verily you will give instruction to this youth, peradventure he
may become a rational being." He continued to give him lessons for some
time, but they made no impression upon him, when he sent a message to
the father, saying: "This son is not getting wise, and he has well-nigh
made me a fool!" Where the innate capacity is good, education may make
an impression upon it; but no furbisher knows how to give a polish to
iron which is of a bad temper. Wash a dog seven times in the ocean, and
so long as he is wet he is all the filthier. Were they to take the ass
of Jesus to Mecca, on his return from that pilgrimage he would still be
an ass.
II
A philosopher was exhorting his children and saying: "O emanations of my
soul, acquire knowledge, as no reliance can be placed on worldly riches
and possessions, for once you leave home rank is of no use, and gold and
silver on a journey are exposed to the risk either of thieves plundering
them at once, or of the owner wasting them by degrees; but knowledge is
a perennial spring and ever-during fortune. Were a professional man to
lose his fortune, he need not feel regret, for his knowledge is of
itself a mine of wealth. Wherever he may sojourn the learned man will
meet respect, and be ushered into the upper seat, whilst the ignorant
man must put up with offal and suffer want:--If thou covet the paternal
heritage, acquire thy father's knowledge, for this thy father's wealth
thou may'st squander in ten days. After having been in authority, it is
hard to obey; after having been fondled with caresses, to put up with
men's violence:--There once occurred an insurrection in Syria, and
everybody forsook his former peaceful abode. The sons of peasants, who
were men of learning, came to be employed as the ministers of kings; and
the children of noblemen, of bankrupt understandings, went a begging
from village to village."
III
A certain learned man was superintending the education of a king's son;
and he was chastising him without mercy, and reproving him with
asperity. The boy, out of all patience, complained to the king his
father, and laid bare before him his much-bruised body. The king was
much offended, and sending for the master, said: "You do not treat the
children of my meanest subject with the harshness and cruelty you do my
boy; what do you mean by this?" He replied: "To think before they speak,
and to deliberate before they act, are duties incumbent upon all
mankind, and more immediately upon kings; because whatever may drop from
their hands and tongue, the special deed or word will somehow become the
subject of public animadversion; whereas any act or remark of the
commonalty attracts not such notice:--Let a dervish, or poor man, commit
a hundred indiscretions, and his companions will not notice one out of
the hundred; and let a king but utter one foolish word, and it will be
echoed from kingdom to kingdom:--therefore in forming the morals of
young princes, more pains are to be taken than with the sons of the
vulgar. Whoever was not taught good manners in his boyhood, fortune will
forsake him when he becomes a man. Thou may'st bend the green bough as
thou likest; but let it once get dry, and it will require heat to
straighten it:--'_Verily thou may'st bend the tender branch, but it were
labor lost to attempt making straight a crooked billet_.'"
The king greatly approved of this ingenious detail, and the wholesome
course of discipline of the learned doctor; and, bestowing upon him a
dress and largess, raised him one step in his rank as a nobleman!
IV
In the west of Africa I saw a schoolmaster of a sour aspect and bitter
speech, crabbed, misanthropic, beggarly, and intemperate, insomuch that
the sight of him would derange the ecstasies of the orthodox; and his
manner of reading the Koran cast a gloom over the minds of the pious. A
number of handsome boys and lovely virgins were subject to his despotic
sway, who had neither the permission of a smile nor the option of a
word, for this moment he would smite the silver cheek of one of them
with his hand, and the next put the crystalline legs of another in the
stocks. In short their parents, I heard, were made aware of a part of
his disloyal violence, and beat and drove him from his charge. And they
made over his school to a peaceable creature, so pious, meek, simple,
and good-natured that he never spoke till forced to do so, nor would he
utter a word that could offend anybody. The children forgot that awe in
which they had held their first master, and remarking the angelic
disposition of their second master, they became one after another as
wicked as devils; and relying on his clemency, they would so neglect
their studies as to pass most part of their time at play, and break the
tablets of their unfinished tasks over each other's heads:--"When the
schoolmaster relaxes in his discipline, the children will stop to play
at marbles in the market-place."
A fortnight after I passed by the gate of that mosque and saw the first
schoolmaster, with whom they had been obliged to make friends, and to
restore him to his place. I was in truth offended, and calling on God to
witness, asked, saying: "Why have they again made a devil the preceptor
of angels?" A facetious old gentleman, who had seen much of life,
listened to me and replied: "Have you not heard what they have said:--A
king sent his son to school, and hung a tablet of silver round his neck.
On the face of that tablet he had written in golden letters: 'The
severity of the master is more useful than the indulgence of the
father.'"
* * * * *
VI
A king gave his son into the charge of a preceptor, and said: "This is
your child, educate him as you would one of your own." For some years he
labored in teaching him, but to no good purpose; whilst the sons of the
preceptor excelled in eloquence and knowledge. The king blamed the
learned man, and remonstrated with him, saying: "You have violated your
trust, and infringed the terms of your engagement." He replied: "O king,
the education is the same, but their capacities are different!" Though
silver and gold are extracted from stones, yet it is not in every stone
that gold and silver are found. The Sohail, or star Canopus, is shedding
his rays all over the globe. In one place he produces common leather, in
another, or in Yamin, that called Adim, or perfumed.
VII
I heard a certain learned senior observing to a disciple:--"If the sons
of Adam were as solicitous after Providence, or God, as they are after
their means of sustenance, their places in Paradise would surpass those
of the angels." God did not overlook thee in that state when thou wert a
senseless embryo in thy mother's womb. He bestowed upon thee a soul,
reason, temper, intellect, symmetry, speech, judgment, understanding,
and reflection. He accommodated thy hands with ten fingers, and
suspended two arms from thy shoulders. Canst thou now suppose, O
good-for-nothing wretch, that he will forget to provide thy daily bread?
VIII
I observed an Arab who was informing his son:--"_O my child, God will
ask thee on the day of judgment: What hast thou done in this life? but
he will not inquire of thee: Whence didst thou derive thy origin?_" That
is, they (or God) will ask, saying: "What are your works?" But he will
not question you, saying: "Who is your father?" The covering of the
Caabah at Mecca, which the pilgrims kiss from devotion, is not prized
from its being the fabric of a silk-worm; for a while it associated with
a venerable friend, and became, in consequence, venerable like him.
IX
They have related in the books of philosophers that scorpions are not
brought forth according to the common course of nature, as other animals
are, but that they eat their way through their mother's wombs, tear open
their bellies, and thus make themselves a passage into the world; and
that the fragments of skin which we find in scorpions' holes corroborate
this fact. On one occasion I was stating this strange event to a good
and great man, when he answered: "My heart is bearing testimony to the
truth of this remark; nor can it be otherwise, for as they have thus
behaved towards their parents in their youth, so they are approved and
beloved in their riper years." On his death-bed a father exhorted his
son, saying: "O generous youth, keep in mind this maxim: 'Whoever is
ungrateful to his own kindred cannot hope that fortune shall befriend
him.'"
X
They asked a scorpion: "Why do you not make your appearance during the
winter?" It answered: "What is my character in the summer that I should
come abroad also in the winter?"
* * * * *
XIII
One year a dissension arose among the foot-travellers on a pilgrimage to
Mecca, and the author (Sa'di) was also a pedestrian among them. In
truth, we fell head and ears together, and accusation and recrimination
were bandied from all sides. I overheard a kajawah, or gentleman, riding
on one side of a camel-litter, observing to his adil, or opposite
companion: "How strange that the ivory piyadah, or pawns, on reaching
the top of the shatranj, or chess-board, become fazzin, or queens; that
is, they get rank, or become better than they were; and the piyadah, or
pawns, of the pilgrimage--that is, our foot-pilgrims--have crossed the
desert and become worse." Say from me to that haji, or pilgrim, the pest
of his fellow-pilgrims, that he lacerates the skin of mankind by his
contention. Thou art not a real pilgrim, but that meek camel is one who
is feeding on thorns and patient under its burden.
XIV
A Hindu, or Indian, was teaching the art of playing off fireworks. A
philosopher observed to him: "This is an unfit sport for you, whose
dwelling is made of straw." Utter not a word till thou knowest that it
is the mirror of what is correct; and do not put a question where thou
knowest that the answer must be unfavorable.
XV
A fellow had a complaint in his eyes, and went to a horse-doctor,
saying: "Prescribe something for me." The doctor of horses applied to
his eyes what he was in the habit of applying to the eyes of quadrupeds,
and the man got blind. They carried their complaint before the hakim, or
judge. He decreed: "This man has no redress, for had he not been an ass
he would not have applied to a horse or ass doctor!" The moral of this
apologue is, that whoever doth employ an inexperienced person on an
affair of importance, besides being brought to shame, he will incur from
the wise the imputation of a weak mind. A prudent man, with an
enlightened understanding, entrusts not affairs of consequence to one of
mean capacity. The plaiter of mats, notwithstanding he be a weaver, they
would not employ in a silk manufactory.
XVI
A certain great Imaam had a worthy son, and he died. They asked him,
saying: "What shall we inscribe upon the urn at his tomb." He replied:
"Verses of the holy Koran are of such superior reverence and dignity
that they should not be written in places where time might efface,
mankind tread upon, or dogs defile them; yet, if an epitaph be
necessary, let these two couplets suffice:--I said: 'Alas! how grateful
it was proving to my heart, so long as the verdure of thy existence
might flourish in the garden.' He replied: 'O my friend, have patience
till the return of the spring, and thou may'st again see roses
blossoming on my bosom, or shooting from my dust.'"
XVII
A holy man was passing by a wealthy personage's mansion, and saw him
with a slave tied up by the hands and feet, and giving him chastisement.
He said: "O my son! God Almighty has made a creature like yourself
subject to your command, and has given you a superiority over him.
Render thanksgiving to the Most High Judge, and deal not with him so
savagely; lest hereafter, on the day of judgment, he may prove the more
worthy of the two, and you be put to shame:--Be not so enraged with thy
bondsman; torture not his body, nor harrow up his heart. Thou mightest
buy him for ten dinars, but hadst not after all the power of creating
him:--To what length will this authority, pride, and insolence hurry
thee; there is a Master mightier than thou art. Yes, thou art a lord of
slaves and vassals, but do not forget thine own Lord Paramount--namely,
God!" There is a tradition of the prophet Mohammed, on whom be blessing,
announcing:--On the day of resurrection, that will be the most
mortifying event when the good slave will be taken up to heaven, and the
wicked master sent down to hell:--"Upon the bondsman, who is subservient
to thy command, wreak not thy rage and boundless displeasure. For it
must be disgraceful on the day of reckoning to find the slave at liberty
and the master in bondage."
XVIII
One year I was on a journey with some Syrians from Balkh, and the road
was infested with robbers. One of our escort was a youth expert at
wielding his shield and brandishing his spear, mighty as an elephant,
and cased in armor, so strong that ten of the most powerful of us could
not string his bow, or the ablest wrestler on the face of the earth
throw him on his back. Yet, as you must know, he had been brought up in
luxury and reared in a shade, was inexperienced of the world, and had
never travelled. The thunder of the great war-drum had never rattled in
his ears, nor had the lightning of the trooper's scimitar ever flashed
across his eyes:--He had never fallen a captive into the hands of an
enemy, nor been overwhelmed amidst a shower of their arrows.
It happened that this young man and I kept running on together; and any
venerable ruin that might come in our way he would overthrow with the
strength of his shoulder; and any huge tree that we might see he would
wrench from its root with his lion-seizing wrist, and boastfully
cry:--"Where is the elephant, that he may behold the shoulder and arm of
warriors? Where the lion, that he may feel the wrist and grip of
heroes?"
Such was our situation when two Hindus darted from behind a rock and
prepared to cut us off, one of them holding a bludgeon in his hand, and
the other having a mallet under his arm. I called to the young man, "Why
do you stop?--Display whatever strength and courage thou hast, for the
foe came on his own feet up to his grave":--I perceived that the youth's
bow and arrows had dropped from his hands, and that a tremor had fallen
upon his limbs:--It is not he that can split a hair with a coat-of-mail
cleaving arrow that is able to withstand an assault from the
formidable:--No alternative was left us but that of surrendering our
arms, accoutrements, and clothes, and escaping with our lives. On an
affair of importance employ a man experienced in business who can bring
the fierce lion within the noose of his halter; though the youth be
strong of arm and has the body of an elephant, in his encounter with a
foe every limb will quake with fear. A man of experience is best
qualified to explore a field of battle, as one of the learned is to
expound a point of law.
XIX
I saw a rich man's son seated by his father's tomb, and in a disputation
with that of a dervish holding forth and saying: "My father's mausoleum
is built of granite, the epitaph inscribed with letters of gold, the
pavement and lining marble, and tessellated with slabs of turquoise; and
what is there left of your father's tomb but two or three bricks
cemented together with a few handfuls of mortar?" The poor man's son
heard this, and answered: "I pray you peace! for before your father can
stir himself under this heavy load of stone mine shall have risen up to
heaven!" And there is a tradition of the prophet, that _death to the
poor is a state of rest_. That ass proceeds all the lighter on his
journey on whom they load the lightest burden:--the poor dervish, who
suffers under a load of indigence, will in like sort enter the gates of
death with an easy burden; but with him who luxuriates in peace, plenty,
and affluence, it must be a real hardship to die amidst all these
comforts. At all events consider the prisoner, who is released from his
thraldom, as better off than the prince who is just fallen a captive.
* * * * *
XXI
I saw a certain person in the garb of dervishes, but not with their
meekness, seated in a company, and full of his abuse. Having opened the
volume of reproach, and begun to calumniate the rich, his discourse had
reached this place, stating: "The hand of the poor man's ability is tied
up, and the foot of the rich man's inclination crippled:--Men of
liberality have no command of money, nor have the opulent and
worldly-minded a spirit of liberality."
Owing, as I am, my support to the bounty of the great, I considered this
animadversion as unmerited, and replied: "O my friend! the rich are the
treasury of the indigent, the granary of the hermit, the fane of the
pilgrim, resting-place of the traveller, and the carriers of heavy
burdens for the relief of their fellow-creatures. They put forth their
hand to eat when their servants and dependants are ready to partake with
them; and the bounteous fragments of their tables they distribute among
widows and the aged, their neighbors and kindred:--The rich have their
consecrated foundations, charitable endowments and rites of hospitality;
their alms, oblations, manumissions, peace-offerings, and sacrifices.
How shalt thou rise to this pomp of fortune who canst perform only these
two genuflexions, and them after manifold difficulties?--Whether it
respect their moral dignity or religious duty, the rich are at ease
within themselves; for their property is sanctified by giving tithes,
and their apparel hallowed by cleanliness, their reputations
unblemished, and minds content. The intelligent are aware that the zeal
of devotion is warmed by good fare, and the sincerity of piety rendered
more serene in a nicety of vesture; for it is evident what ardor there
can be in a hungry stomach; what generosity in squalid penury; what
ability of travelling with a bare foot; and what alacrity at bestowing
from an empty hand:--Uneasy must be the night-slumbers of him whose
provision for to-morrow is not forthcoming: the ant is laying by a store
in summer that she may enjoy an abundance in winter. It is clear that
indigence and tranquillity can never go together, nor have fruition and
want the same aspect: the one had composed himself for prayer, and the
other sat anxious, and thinking on his supper; how then could this ever
come in competition with that? The lord of plenty has his mind fixed on
God; when a man's fortune is bankrupt, so is his heart:--accordingly,
the devotion of the rich is more acceptable at the temple of God,
because their thoughts are present and collected, and their minds not
absent and distracted; for they have laid up the conveniences of good
living, and digested at their leisure their scriptural quotations (for
prayer). The Arabs say: '_God preserve us from overwhelming poverty; and
from the company of him whom he loves not, namely, the infidel_':--And
there is a tradition of the prophet--that '_poverty has a gloomy aspect
in this world and in the next_!'"
My antagonist said: "Have you not heard what the blessed prophet has
declared?--'_poverty is my glory!_'" I replied: "Be silent, for the
allusion of the Lord of both worlds applies to such as are heroes in the
field of resignation, and the devoted victims of their fate, and not to
those who put on the garb of piety, that they may entitle themselves to
the bread of charity. O noisy drum! thou art nothing but an empty sound;
unprovided with the means, what canst thou effect on the last day of
account? If thou art a man of spirit, turn thy face away from begging
charity from thy fellow-creature; and keep not repeating thy rosary of a
thousand beads. Being without divine knowledge, a dervish, or poor man,
rests not till his poverty settles into infidelity; for _he that is poor
is well-nigh being an infidel_:--nor is it practicable, unless through
the agency of wealth, to clothe the naked, and to liberate the prisoner
from jail: how then can such mendicants as we are aspire to their
dignity; or what comparison is there between the arm of the lofty and
the hand of the abject? Do you not perceive that the glorious and great
God announces, in the holy book of the Koran, xxviii, the enjoyments of
the blessed in Paradise?--that '_to this community, namely, the orthodox
Mussulmans, a provision is allotted_';--in order that you may
understand that such as are solely occupied in looking after their daily
subsistence are excluded from this portion of the blessed; and that the
property of present enjoyment is sanctioned under the seal of
Providence:--to the thirsty it will seem in their dreams as if the face
of the earth were wholly a fountain. You may everywhere observe that,
instigated by his appetites, a person who has suffered hardship and
tasted bitterness will engage in dangerous enterprises; and, indifferent
to the consequences, and unawed by future punishments, he will not
discriminate between what is lawful and what is forbid:--Should a clod
of earth be thrown at the head of a dog, he would jump up in joy, and
take it for a bone; or were two people carrying a corpse on a bier, a
greedy man would fancy it a tray of victuals. Whereas the worldly
opulent are regarded with the benevolent eye of Providence, and in their
enjoyments of what is lawful are preserved from things illegal. Having
thus detailed my arguments and adduced my proofs, I rely on your justice
for an equitable decree; whether you ever saw a felon with his arms
pinioned; a bankrupt immured in a jail; the veil of innocency rent, or
the arm mutilated for theft, unless in consequence of poverty: for
lion-like heroes, instigated by want, have been caught undermining
walls, and breaking into houses, and have got themselves suspended by
the heels. It is, moreover, possible that a poor man, urged to it by an
inordinate appetite, may feel desirous of gratifying his lust; and he
may fall the victim of some accursed sin. And of the manifold means of
mental tranquillity and corporeal enjoyment which are the special lots
of the opulent, one is that every night they can command a fresh
mistress, and every day possess a new charmer, such as must excite the
envy of the glorious dawn, and stick the foot of the stately cypress in
the mire of shame:--'She had dipped her hands in the blood of her
lovers, and tinged the tips of her fingers with jujubes':--so that it
were impossible, with such lovely objects before their eyes, for them to
desire what is forbidden or to wish to commit sin:--Why should such a
heart as the houris, or nymphs of Paradise, have captivated and
plundered, show any way partial to the idols of Yaghma (a city in
Turkestan famous for its beauties)?--_He who has in both his hands such
dates as he can relish, will not think of throwing stones at the bunches
of dates on their trees_. In common, such as are in indigent
circumstances will contaminate the skirt of innocency with sin; and such
as are suffering from hunger will steal bread:--When a ravenous dog has
found a piece of meat, he asks not, saying: Is this the flesh of the
prophet Salah's camel or Antichrist's ass? Many are the chaste who,
because of their poverty, have fallen into the sink of wickedness, and
given their fair reputations to the blast of infamy:--The virtue of
temperance remains not with a state of being famished; and bankrupt
circumstances will snatch the rein from the hand of abstemiousness."
The moment I had finished this speech, the dervish, my antagonist, let
the rein of forbearance drop from the hand of moderation; unsheathed the
sabre of his tongue; set the steed of eloquence at full speed over the
plain of arrogance; and, galloping up to me, said: "You have so
exaggerated in their praise, and amplified with such extravagance, that
we might fancy them an antidote to the poison of poverty and a key to
the store-house of Providence; yet they are a proud, self-conceited,
fastidious, and overbearing set, insatiate after wealth and property,
and ambitious of rank and dignity; who exchange not a word but to
express insolence, or deign a look but to show contempt. Men of science
they call beggars, and the indigent they reproach for their wretched
raggedness. Proud of the property they possess, and vain of the rank
they claim, they take the upper hand of all, and deem themselves
everybody's superior. Nor do they ever condescend to return any person's
salutation, unmindful of the maxim of the wise: That whoever is inferior
to others in humility, and is their superior in opulence, though in
appearance he be rich, yet in reality he is a beggar:--If a worthless
fellow, because of his wealth, treats a learned man with insolence,
reckon him an ass, although he be the ambergris ox."
I replied: "Do not calumniate the rich, for they are the lords of
munificence." He said: "You mistake them, for they are the slaves of
dinars and dirams, or their gold and silver coins. For example, what
profits it though they be the clouds of the spring, if they may not send
us rain; or the fountain of the sun, and shine upon no one; or though
they be mounted on the steed of capability, and advance not towards
anybody? They will not move a step for the sake of God, nor bestow their
charity without laying you under obligation and thanks. They hoard
their money with solicitude, watch it while they live with sordid
meanness, and leave it behind them with deadening regret, verifying the
saying of the wise: 'That the money of the miser is coming out of the
earth when he is himself going into it:'--One man hoards a treasure with
pain and tribulation, another comes and spends it without tribulation or
pain."
I replied: "You could have ascertained the parsimony of the wealthy only
through the medium of your own beggary; otherwise to him who lays
covetousness aside the generous man and miser seem all one. The
touchstone can prove which is pure gold, and the beggar can say which is
the niggard." He said: "I speak of them from experience; for they
station dependants by their doors, and plant surly porters at their
gates, to deny admittance to the worthy, and to lay violent hands upon
the collars of the elect, and say: 'There is nobody at home'; and verily
they tell what is true:--When the master has not reason or judgment,
understanding or discernment, the porter reported right of him, saying:
'There is nobody in the house.'"
I replied: "They are excusable, inasmuch as they are worried out of
their lives by importunate memorialists, and jaded to their hearts by
indigent solicitors; and it might be reasonably doubted whether it would
satisfy the eye of the covetous if the sands of the desert could be
turned into pearls:--The eye of the greedy is not to be filled with
worldly riches, any more than a well can be replenished from the dew of
night. And had Hatim Tayi, who dwelt in the desert, come to live in a
city, he would have been overwhelmed with the importunities of
mendicants, and they would have torn the clothes from his back:--Look
not towards me, lest thou should draw the eyes of others, for at the
mendicant's hand no good can be expected."
He said: "I pity their condition." I replied: "Not so; but you envy them
their property." We were thus warm in argument, and both of us close
engaged. Whatever chess pawn he might advance I would set one in
opposition to it; and whenever he put my king in check, I would relieve
him with my queen; till he had exhausted all the coin in the purse of
his resolution, and expended all the arrows of the quiver of his
argument. "Take heed and retreat not from the orator's attack, for
nothing is left him but metaphor and hyperbole. Wield thy polemics and
law citations, for the wordy rhetorician made a show of arms over his
gate, but has not a soldier within his fort":--At length, having no
syllogism left, I made him crouch in mental submission. He stretched
forth the arm of violence, and began with vain abuse. As is the case
with the ignorant, when beaten by their antagonist in fair argument,
they shake the chain of rancor; like Azor, the idol-maker, when he could
no longer contend with his son Abraham in words he fell upon him with
blows, as God has said in the Koran--"_If thou wilt not yield this
point, I will overwhelm thee with stones_:"--He gave me abuse, and I
retorted upon him with asperity; he tore my collar, and I plucked his
beard:--He had fallen upon me and I upon him, and a crowd had gathered
round us enjoying the sport. A whole world gnawed the finger of
astonishment when it heard and understood what had taken place between
us.
In short, we referred our dispute to the cazi, and agreed to abide by
his equitable decree: That the judge of the Mussulmans, or faithful,
might bring about a peace, and discriminate for us between the poor and
rich. After having noted our physiognomies, and listened to our
statements, the cazi rested his chin on the breast of deliberation; and,
after due consideration, raised it, and said: "Be it known to you, who
were lavish in your praise of the rich, and spoke disparagingly of the
poor, that there is no rose without its thorn; intoxication from wine is
followed by a qualm; hidden treasure has its guardian dragon; where the
imperial pearl is found, there swims the man-devouring shark; the honey
of worldly enjoyment has the sting of death in its rear; and between us
and the felicity of Paradise stands a frightful demon, namely, Satan. So
long as the charmer slew not her admirer, what could the rival's malice
avail him? The rose and thorn, the treasure and dragon, joy and sorrow,
all mingle into one.--Do you not observe that in the garden there are
the sweet-scented willows and the withered trunks; so among the classes
of the rich some are grateful and some thankless; and among the orders
of the poor some are resigned and some impatient:--Were every drop of
dew to turn into a pearl, in the market pearls would be as common as
shells. Near by the throne of a great and glorious Judge are the rich
meek in spirit, and the poor rich in resolution. And the chief of the
opulent is he who sympathizes with the sorrows of the indigent; and the
most virtuous of the indigent is he who covets not the society of the
opulent:--_God is all-sufficient for him who trusts in God_."
Then the cazi turned the face of animadversion from me towards the
dervish, and said: "O you who have charged the rich with being active in
sin, and intoxicated with things forbidden, verily there is such a tribe
as you have described them, illiberal in their bigotry, and stingy of
God's bounty; who are collecting and hoarding money, but will neither
use nor bestow it. If, for example, there was a drought, or if the whole
earth was deluged with a flood, confident of their own abundance, they
would not inquire after the poor man's distress, and, fearless of the
divine wrath, exclaim:--If, in his want of everything, another person be
annihilated, I have plenty; and what does a goose care for a deluge?
_Such as are lolling in their litters, and indulging in the easy pace of
a female camel, feel not for the foot-traveller perishing amidst
overwhelming sands:_--The mean-spirited, when they could escape with
their own rugs, would cry: 'What care we should the whole world die.'
"Such as you have stated them, there is a tribe of rich men; but there
is another class, who, having spread the table of abundance, and made a
public declaration of their munificence, and smoothed the brow of their
humility, are solicitous of a reputation and forgiveness, and desirous
of enjoying this world and the next; like unto the servants of his
Majesty the sovereign of the universe, just, confirmed, victorious, lord
paramount and conqueror of nations, defender of the stronghold of
Islamism, successor of Solomon, most equitable of contemporary kings.
Mozuffar-ud-din Atabak-Abubakr-Saad, may God give him a long life, and
grant victory to his standards!--A father could never show such
benevolence to his son as thy liberal hand has bestowed upon the race of
Adam. The Deity was desirous of conferring a kindness upon man, and in
his special mercy made thee sovereign of the world."
Now that the cazi had carried his harangue to this extreme, and had
galloped the steed of metaphor beyond our expectation, we of necessity
acquiesced in the absolute decree of being satisfied, and apologized for
what had passed between us; and after altercation we returned into the
path of reconciliation, laid the heads of reparation at each other's
feet, mutually kissed and embraced, and, letting mischief fall asleep,
and war lull itself into peace, concluded the whole in these two
verses:--"O poor man! complain not of the revolutions of fortune, for
gloomy might be thy lot wert thou to die in such sentiments. And now, O
rich man! that thy hand and heart administer to thy pleasures, spend and
give away, that thou may'st enjoy this world and the next."