The Project Gutenberg eBook, Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The
Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan
, by Anonymous, et
al, Translated by James Ross


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Title: Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The
Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan


Author: Anonymous

Release Date: July 30, 2004  [eBook #13060]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1


***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERSIAN LITERATURE, VOLUME 2,
COMPRISING THE SHAH NAMEH, THE RUBAIYAT, THE DIVAN, AND THE GULISTAN
***


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Notes: Volume 1 of this work can be found in Project Gutenberg's library.
       See http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10315

       A few original typesetter's errors (inconsistent spelling,
       superfluous quotation marks, and the like) have been corrected
       in the interests of producing a smooth-reading text.

       The reader will also occasionally find a line of asterisks
       between sections. These are found in the original and they
       indicate a missing section. It is not clear why the translator
       skipped these sections. Reference to another, complete,
       translation of the Gulistan shows no appreciable differences,
       in length or subject, between the sections included and those
       excluded.





PERSIAN LITERATURE

comprising

THE SHÁH NÁMEH, THE RUBÁIYÁT
THE DIVAN, AND THE GULISTAN

Revised Edition, Volume 2

1900

With a special introduction by
RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL, Ph.D.
Professor of Rabbinical Literature and the Semitic Languages
at Columbia University







CONTENTS

THE GULISTAN

Introduction

CHAPTER

   I.  Of the Customs of Kings

  II.  Of the Morals of Dervishes

 III.  On the Preciousness of Contentment

  IV.  On the Benefit of Being Silent

   V.  On Love and Youth

  VI.  Of Imbecility and Old Age

 VII.  Of the Impressions of Education

VIII.  Of the Duties of Society




THE GULISTAN

BY

SA'DI

[Translation by James Ross]




INTRODUCTION


The Persian poet Sa'di, generally known in literary history as
Muslih-al-Din, belongs to the great group of writers known as the
Shirazis, or singers of Shiraz. His "Gulistan," or "Rose Garden," is the
mature work of his life-time, and he lived to the age of one hundred and
eight. The Rose Garden was an actual thing, and was part of the little
hermitage, to which he retired, after the vicissitudes and travels of
his earlier life, to spend his days in religious contemplation, and the
embodiment of his experience in reminiscences, which took the form of
anecdotes, sage and pious reflections, _bon-mots_, and exquisite lyrics.
When a friend visited him in his cell and had filled a basket with
nosegays from the garden of the poet with roses, hyacinths, spikenards,
and sweet-basils, Sa'di told him of the book he was writing, and
added:--"What can a nosegay of flowers avail thee? Pluck but one leaf
from my Rose Garden; the rose from yonder bush lasts but a few days, but
this Rose must bloom to all eternity."

Sa'di has been proved quite correct in this estimate of his own work.
The book is indeed a sweet garden of unfading freshness. If we compare
Sa'di with Hafiz, we find that both of them based their theory of life
upon the same Sufic pantheism. Both of them were profoundly religious
men. Like the strong and life-giving soil out of whose bosom sprang the
rose-tree, wherein the nightingales sang, was the fixed religious
confidence, which formed the support of each poet's mind, amid all the
vagaries of fancy, and the luxuriant growth of fruit and flower which
their genius gave to the world. Hafiz is the Persian Anacreon. As he
raises his voice of thrilling and unvarying sweetness, his steps reel,
he waves the thyrsus, and his flushed cheek shows the inspiration of the
vine. To him the Supreme Being has much in common with the Indian or
Thracian Dionysus, the god of perennial youth, joyous revel, and
exhilaration. Hafiz can never be the guide, though he may be the cheerer
of mortals, adding more to the gayety than to the wisdom of life. But
both in the western and in the eastern world Sa'di must always be looked
upon as the guide and enlightener of those who taste life, and love
poetry. It has been said by a wise man that poetry is the great
instructor of mature minds. Many a man turning away in weariness from
the controversies, the insincerities, and the pretentiousness of the
intellectualists around him, has exclaimed, "Give me my Horace." But
Horace with all his _bonhommie_, his common sense, and his acuteness, is
but the representative of a narrow Roman coterie of the Augustan age.
How thin, flimsy, and unspiritual does he appear in comparison with the
marvellous depth, the spiritual insight, the tenderness and power of
expression which characterized Sa'di.

Sa'di had begun his life as a student of the Koran and became early
imbued with the quietism of Islam. The cheerfulness and exuberant joy
which characterize the poems he wrote before he reached his fortieth
year, had bubbled up under the repressions of severe discipline and
austerity. But the religion of Mohammed was soon exchanged by him, under
the guidance of a famous teacher, for the wider and more transcendental
system of Sufism. Within the area of this magnificent scheme, the
boldest ever formulated under the name of religion, he found the liberty
which his soul desired. Early discipline had made him a morally sound
man, and it is the goodness of Sa'di that lends such a warm and
endearing charm to his works. The last finish was given to his
intellectual training by the travels which he took after the Tartar
invasion desolated Persia, in the thirteenth century. India, Arabia,
Syria, were in turn visited. He found Damascus a congenial
halting-place, and lived there for some time, with an increasing
reputation as a sage and poet. He preached at Baalbec on the
fugitiveness of human life, on faith, love, and rest in God. He
wandered, like Jerome, in the wilderness about Jerusalem, and worked as
a slave in Africa in the trenches of Tripoli: he travelled the length
and breadth of Asia Minor. When he arrived back at Shiraz, he had passed
the limit of three-score years and ten, and there he remained in his
hermitage and his garden, to arrange the result of all his studies, his
experiences, and his sufferings, in that consummate work which he has
named the "Rose Garden," after the little cultivated plot in which he
spent his declining days and drew his last breath.

The "Gulistan" is divided into eight chapters, each dealing with a
specific subject and partaking of the nature of an essay: although these
chapters are composed of disjointed paragraphs, generally beginning with
an aphorism or an anecdote and closing with an original poem of a few
lines. Sometimes these paragraphs are altogether lyrical. We are struck,
first of all, by the personal character of these paragraphs; many of
them relate the experience of the poet in some part of his travels,
expressing his comment upon what he had seen and heard. His comments
generally take the form of practical wisdom, or religious suggestion. He
gives us the impression that he knows life and the human heart
thoroughly. It may be said of him, as Arnold said of Sophocles, he was
one "who saw life steadily, and saw it whole." On the other hand, there
is not the slightest trace of cynical acerbity in his writings. He has
passed through the world in the independence of a self-possessed soul,
and has found it all good, saving for the folly of fools and the
wretchedness and degradation of the depraved. There is no bitter
fountain in the "Rose Garden," and the old man's heart is as fresh as
when he left Shiraz, thirty years before; the sprightliness of his
poetry has only been ripened and tempered to a more exquisite flavor, by
the increase of wisdom and the perfecting of art.

Above all, we find in Sa'di the science of life, as comprising morality
and religion, set forth in a most suggestive and a most attractive form.
In some way or other the "Rose Garden" may remind us of the "Essays" of
Bacon, which were published in their complete form the year before the
great English philosopher died. Both works cover a large area of thought
and experience; but the Englishman is clear, cold, and sometimes
cynical, while the Persian is more spiritual, though not less acute, and
has the fervor of the poet which Bacon lacks, and the religious devotion
which the "Essays" altogether miss. The "Rose Garden" has maxims which
are not unworthy of being cherished amid the highest Christian
civilization, while the serenity of mind, the poetic fire, the
transparent sincerity of Sa'di, make his writings one of those books
which men may safely take as the guide and inspirer of their inmost
life. Sa'di died at Shiraz about the year 1292 at the reputed age of one
hundred and ten.

E.W.




CHAPTER I

Of the Customs of Kings


I

I have heard of a king who made the sign to put a captive to death. The
poor wretch, in that state of desperation, began to abuse the king in
the dialect which he spoke, and to revile him with asperity, as has been
said; whoever shall wash his hands of life will utter whatever he may
harbor in his heart:--"_When a man is desperate he will give a latitude
to his tongue, like as a cat at bay will fly at a dog_"--"at the moment
of compulsion when it is impossible to fly, the hand will grasp the
sharp edge of a sword." The king asked, saying, "What does he say?" One
of the Vizirs (or nobles in attendance), and a well-disposed man, made
answer, "O my lord! he is expressing himself and saying, _(paradise is
for such) as are restraining their anger and forgiving their
fellow-creatures; and God will befriend the benevolent_." The king felt
compassion for him, and desisted from shedding his blood. Another
nobleman, and the rival of that former, said, "It is indecorous for such
peers, as we are, to use any language but that of truth in the presence
of kings; this man abused his majesty, and spoke what was unworthy of
him." The king turned away indignant at this remark, and replied, "I was
better pleased with his falsehood than with this truth that you have
told; for that bore the face of good policy, and this was founded in
malignity; and the intelligent have said, 'A peace-mingling falsehood is
preferable to a mischief-stirring truth':--Whatever prince may do that
which he (his counsellor) will recommend, it must be a subject of regret
if he shall advise aught but good."

They had written over the portico of King Feridún's palace:--"This
world, O brother! abides with none. Set thy heart upon its maker, and
let him suffice thee. Rest not thy pillow and support on a worldly
domain which has fostered and slain many such as thou art. Since the
precious soul must resolve on going, what matters it whether it departs
from a throne or the ground."


II

One of the kings of Khorasan saw, in a dream, Sultan Mahmud, the son of
Saboktagin, an hundred years after his death, when his body was decayed
and fallen into dust, all but his eyes, which as heretofore were moving
in their sockets and looking about them. All the learned were at a stand
for its interpretation, excepting one dervish, who made his obeisance,
and said:--"He is still looking about him, because his kingdom and
wealth are possessed by others!--Many are the heroes whom they have
buried under ground, of whose existence above it not one vestige is
left; and of that old carcase which they committed to the earth, the
earth has so consumed it that not one bone is left. Though many ages are
gone since Nushirowan was in being, yet in the remembrance of his
munificence is his fair renown left. Be generous, O my friend! and avail
thyself of life, before they proclaim it as an event that such a person
is not left."


III

I have heard of a king's son who was short and mean, and his other
brothers were lofty in stature and handsome. On one occasion the king,
his father, looked at him with disparagement and scorn. The son, in his
sagacity, understood him and said, "O father! a short wise man is
preferable to a tall blockhead; it is not everything that is mightier in
stature that is superior in value:--_a sheep's flesh is wholesome, that
of an elephant carrion_.--_Of the mountains of this earth Sinai is one
of the least, yet is it most mighty before God in state and
dignity_.--Heardst thou not what an intelligent lean man said one day to
a sleek fat dolt? An Arab horse, notwithstanding his slim make, is more
prized thus than a herd of asses."

The father smiled; the pillars of the state, or courtiers, nodded their
assent, and the other brothers were mortified to the quick. Till a man
has declared his mind, his virtue and vice may have lain hidden; do not
conclude that the thicket is unoccupied, peradventure the tiger is gone
asleep!

I have heard that about that time a formidable antagonist appeared
against the king. Now that an army was levied in each side, the first
person that mounted his horse and sallied upon the plain was that son,
and he exclaimed: "I cannot be that man whose back thou mayest see on
the day of battle, but am him thou mayest descry amidst the thick of it,
with my head covered with dust and blood; for he that engages in the
contest sports with his own blood, but he who flees from it sports with
the blood of an army on the day of fight." He so spoke, assaulting the
enemy's cavalry, and overthrew some renowned warriors. When he came
before the king he kissed the earth of obeisance, and said, "O thou, who
didst view my body with scorn, whilst not aware of valor's rough
exterior, it is the lean steed that will prove of service, and not the
fatted ox, on the day of battle."

They have reported that the enemy's cavalry was immense, and those of
the king few in number; a body of them was inclined to fly, when the
youth called aloud, and said, "Be resolute, my brave men, that you may
not have to wear the apparel of women!" The troops were more courageous
on this speech, and attacked altogether. I have heard that on that day
they obtained a complete victory over the enemy. The king kissed his
face and eyes, and folded him in his arms, and became daily more
attached to him, till he declared him heir-apparent to the throne. The
brothers bore him a grudge, and put poison into his food. His sister saw
this from a window, and closed the shutter; and the boy understood the
sign, and withdrew his hand from the dish, and said, "It is hard that
the virtuous should perish and that the vicious should occupy their
places." Were the homayi, or phoenix, to be extinct in the world, none
would take refuge under the shadow of an owl. They informed the father
of this event; he sent for the brothers and rebuked them, as they
deserved. Then he made a division of his domains, and gave a suitable
portion to each, that discontent might cease; but the ferment was
increased, as they have said: Ten dervishes can sleep on one rug, but
two kings cannot be accommodated in a whole kingdom. When a man after
God's heart can eat the moiety of his loaf, the other moiety he will
give in alms to the poor. A king may acquire the sovereignty of one
climate or empire; and he will in like manner covet the possession of
another.


IV

A horde of Arab robbers had possessed themselves of the fastness of a
mountain, and waylaid the track of the caravan. The yeomanry of the
villages were frightened at their stratagems, and the king's troops
alarmed, inasmuch as they had secured an impregnable fortress on the
summit of the mountain, and made this stronghold their retreat and
dwelling.

The superintendents of the adjacent districts consulted together about
obviating their mischief, saying: If they are in this way left to
improve their fortune, any opposition to them may prove impracticable.
The tree that has just taken root, the strength of one man may be able
to extract; but leave it to remain thus for a time, and the machinery of
a purchase may fail to eradicate it: the leak at the dam-head might have
been stopped with a plug, while, now it has a vent, we cannot ford its
current on an elephant.

Finally it was determined that they should set a spy over them, and
watch an opportunity when they had made a sally upon another tribe, and
left their citadel unguarded. Some companies of able warriors and
experienced troops were sent, that they might conceal themselves in the
recesses of the mountain. At night, when the robbers were returned,
jaded with their march and laden with spoil, and had stripped themselves
of their armor, and deposited their plunder, the foremost enemy they had
to encounter was sleep. Now that the first watch of night was
gone:--"the disc of the sun was withdrawn into a shade, and Jonas had
stepped into the fish's mouth "--the bold-hearted warriors sprang from
their ambush and secured the robbers by pinioning them one after
another.

In the morning they presented them at the royal tribunal, and the king
gave an order to put the whole to death. There happened to be among them
a stripling, the fruit of whose early spring was ripening in its bloom,
and the flower-garden of his cheek shooting into blossom. One of the
vizirs kissed the foot of the imperial throne, and laid the face of
intercession on the ground, and said, "This boy has not yet tasted the
fruit of the garden of life, nor enjoyed the fragrance of the flowers of
youth: such is my confidence in the generous disposition of his Majesty
that it will favor a devoted servant by sparing his blood." The king
turned his face away from this speech; as it did not accord with his
lofty way of thinking, he replied:--"The rays of the virtuous cannot
illuminate such as are radically vicious; to give education to the
worthless is like throwing walnuts upon a dome:--it were wiser to
eradicate the tree of their wickedness, and annihilate their tribe; for
to put out a fire and leave the embers, and to kill a viper and foster
its young, would not be the acts of rational beings. Though the clouds
pour down the water of vegetation, thou canst never gather fruit from a
willow twig. Exalt not the fortune of the abject, for thou canst never
extract sugar from a mat or common cane."

The vizir listened to this speech; willingly or not he approved of it,
and applauded the good sense of the king, and said:--"What his majesty,
whose dominion is eternal, is pleased to remark is the mirror of probity
and essence of good policy, for had he been brought up in the society of
those vagabonds, and confined to their service, he would have followed
their vicious courses. Your servant, however, trusts that he may be
instructed to associate with the virtuous, and take to the habits of the
prudent; for he is still a child, and the lawless and refractory
principles of that gang cannot have yet tainted his mind; and it is in
tradition that--_Whatever child is born, and he is verily born after the
right way of orthodoxy, namely Islamism, afterwards his father and his
mother bring him up as a Jew, Christian, or Guebre_.--The wife of Lot
associated with the wicked, and her posterity failed in the gift of
prophecy; the dog of the seven sleepers (at Ephesus) for some time took
the path of the righteous, and became a rational being."

He said this, and a body of the courtiers joined him in intercession,
till the king acceded to the youth's pardon, and answered: "I gave him
up, though I saw not the good of it.--Knowest thou what Zal said to the
heroic Rustem: 'Thou must not consider thy foe as abject and helpless. I
have often found a small stream at the fountain-head, which, when
followed up, carried away the camel and its load.'"

In short, the vizir took the boy home, and educated him with kindness
and liberality. And he appointed him masters and tutors, who taught him
the graces of logic and rhetoric, and all manner of courtier
accomplishments, so that he met general approbation. On one occasion the
vizir was detailing some instances of his proficiency and talents in the
royal presence, and saying: "The instruction of the wise has made an
impression upon him, and his former savageness is obliterated from his
mind." The king smiled at this speech, and replied:--"The whelp of a
wolf must prove a wolf at last, notwithstanding he may be brought up by
a man."

Two years after this a gang of city vagabonds got about him, and joined
in league, till on an opportunity he murdered the vizir and his two
sons; and, carrying off an immense booty, he took up the station of his
father in the den of thieves, and became a hardened villain. The king
was apprised of this event; and, seizing the hand of amazement with the
teeth of regret, said:--"How can any person manufacture a tempered sabre
from base iron; nor can a base-born man, O wiseacre, be made a gentleman
by any education! Rain, in the purity of whose nature there is no
anomaly, cherishes the tulip in the garden and common weed in the
salt-marsh. Waste not thy labor in scattered seed upon a briny soil, for
it can never be made to yield spikenard; to confer a favor on the wicked
is of a like import, as if thou didst an injury to the good."


V

At the gate of Oghlamish Patan, King of Delhi, I (namely Sa'di) saw an
officer's son, who, in his wit and learning, wisdom and understanding,
surpassed all manner of encomium. In the prime of youth, he at the same
time bore on his forehead the traces of ripe age, and exhibited on his
cheek the features of good fortune:--"Above his head, from his prudent
conduct, the star of superiority shone conspicuous."

In short, it was noticed with approbation by the king that he possessed
bodily accomplishments and mental endowments. And sages have remarked
that worth rests not on riches, but on talents; and the discretion of
age, not in years, but on good sense. His comrades envied his good
fortune, charged him with disaffection, and vainly attempted to have him
put to death:--"but what can the rival effect so long as the charmer is
our friend?"

The king asked, saying, "Why do they show such a disinclination to do
you justice?" He replied: "Under the shadow of his majesty's good
fortune I have pleased everybody, excepting the envious man, who is not
to be satisfied but with a decline of my success; and let the prosperity
and dominion of my lord the king be perpetual!" I can so manage as to
give umbrage to no man's heart; but what can I do with the envious man,
who harbors within himself the cause of his own chagrin? Die, O ye
envious, that ye may get a deliverance; for this is such an evil that
you can get rid of it only by death. Men soured by misfortune anxiously
desire that the state and fortune of the prosperous may decline; if the
eye of the bat is not suited for seeing by day, how can the fountain of
the sun be to blame? Dost thou require the truth? It were better a
thousand such eyes should suffer, rather than that the light of the sun
were obscured.


VI

They tell a story of a Persian king who had stretched forth the arm of
oppression over the subjects' property, and commenced a system of
violence and rapacity to such a degree that the people emigrated to
avoid the vexatiousness of his tyranny, and took the road of exile to
escape the annoyance of his extortions. Now that the population was
diminished and the resources of the state had failed, the treasury
remained empty, and enemies gathered strength on all sides. Whoever may
expect a comforter on the day of adversity, say, let him practise
humanity during the season of prosperity; if not treated cordially, thy
devoted slave will forsake thee; show him kindness and affection, and
the stranger may become the slave of thy devotion.

One day they were reading, in his presence, from the Sháh Námeh, of the
tyrant Zohák's declining dominion and the succession of Feridún. The
vizir asked the king, saying: "Can you so far comprehend that Feridún
had no revenue, domain, or army, and how the kingdom came to be
confirmed with him?" He answered: "As you have heard, a body of people
collected about him from attachment, and gave their assistance till he
acquired a kingdom." The vizir said: "Since, O sire, a gathering of the
people is the means of forming a kingdom, how come you in fact to cause
their dispersion unless it be that you covet not a sovereignty? So far
were good that thou wouldst patronize the army with all thy heart, for a
king with an army constitutes a principality." The king asked: "What are
the best means of collecting an army and yeomanry?" He replied:
"Munificence is the duty of a king, that the people may assemble around
him, and clemency, that they may rest secure under the asylum of his
dominion and fortune, neither of which you have. A tyrant cannot govern
a kingdom, for the duty of a shepherd is not expected from the wolf. A
king that can anyhow be accessory to tyranny will undermine the wall of
his own sovereignty."

The advice of the prudent minister did not accord with the disposition
of the king. He ordered him to be confined, and immured him in a
dungeon. It soon came to pass that the sons of the king's uncle rose in
opposition, levied an army in support of their pretensions, and claimed
the sovereignty of their father. A host of the people, who had cruelly
suffered under the arm of his extortion and were dispersed, gathered
around and succored them till they dispossessed him of his kingdom and
established them in his stead. That king who can approve of tyrannizing
over the weak will find his friend a bitter foe in the day of hardship.
Deal fairly with thy subjects, and rest easy about the warfare of thine
enemies, for with an upright prince his yeomanry is an army.

       *       *       *       *       *


VIII

They asked Hormuz, son of Nushirowan, "What fault did you find with your
father's ministers that you ordered them into confinement?" He replied:
"I saw no fault that might deserve imprisonment; yet I perceived that
any reverence for me makes a slight impression on their minds, and that
they put no implicit reliance on my promise. I feared lest from an
apprehension of their own safety they might conspire my ruin;
therefore, put in practice that maxim of philosophers who have told us:
'Stand in awe, O wise man, of him who stands in awe of thee,
notwithstanding thou canst cope with a hundred such as he. Therefore
will the snake bite the herdsman's foot, because it fears that he will
bruise its head with a stone. Seest thou not that now that the cat is
desperate it will tear out the tiger's eyes with its claws.'"


IX

In his old age an Arab king was grievously sick, and had no hopes of
recovery, when, lo! a messenger on horseback presented himself at the
palace-gate, and joyfully announced, saying: "Under his majesty's good
fortune we have taken such a stronghold, made the enemy prisoners of
war, and reduced all the landholders and vassals of that quarter to
obedience as subjects." On hearing this news the king fetched a cold
sigh, and answered: "These glad tidings are not intended for me but for
my rivals, namely, the heirs of the sovereignty. My precious life has,
alas! been wasted in the hope that what my heart chiefly coveted might
enter at my gate. My bounden hope was gratified; yet what do I benefit
by that? There is no hope that my passed life can return. The hand of
death beats the drum of departure. Yes, my two eyes, you must bid adieu
to my head. Yes, palm of my hand, wrist, and arm, all of you say
farewell, and each take leave of the other. Death has overtaken me to
the gratification of my foes; and you, O my friends, must at last be
going. My days were blazed away in folly; what I did not do let you take
warning (and do)."


X

At the metropolitan mosque of Damascus I was one year fervent in prayer
over the tomb of Yahiya, or John the Baptist and prophet, on whom be
God's blessing, when one of the Arab princes, who was notorious for his
injustice, chanced to arrive on a pilgrimage, and he put up his
supplication, asked a benediction, and craved his wants.--The rich and
poor are equally the devoted slaves of this shrine, and the richer they
are the more they stand in need of succor. Then he spoke to me, saying:
"In conformity with the generous resolution of dervishes and their
sincere zeal, you will, I trust, unite with me in prayer, for I have
much to fear from a powerful enemy." I answered him, "Have compassion on
your own weak subjects, that you may not see disquiet from a strong foe.
With a mighty arm and heavy hand it is dastardly to wrench the wrists of
poor and helpless. Is he not afraid who is hardhearted with the fallen
that if he slip his foot nobody will take him by the hand?--Whoever
sowed the seed of vice and expected a virtuous produce, pampered a vain
brain and encouraged an idle whim. Take the cotton from thy ear and do
mankind justice, for if thou refusest them justice there is a day of
retribution. The sons of Adam are members one of another, for in their
creation they have a common origin. If the vicissitudes of fortune
involve one member in pain, all the other members will feel a sympathy.
Thou, who art indifferent to other men's affliction, if they call thee a
man art unworthy of the name."


XI

A dervish, whose prayers had a ready acceptance (with God), made his
appearance at Bagdad. Hojaj Yusuf (a great tyrant) sent for him and
said: "Put up a good prayer for me." He prayed, "O God! take from him
his life!" Hojaj said, "For God's sake, what manner of prayer is this?"
He answered: "It is a salutary prayer for you, and for the whole sect of
Mussulmans.--O mighty sir, thou oppressor of the feeble, how long can
this violence remain marketable? For what purpose came the sovereignty
to thee? Thy death were preferable to thy tyrannizing over mankind."


XII

An unjust king asked a holy man, saying, "What is more excellent than
prayers?" He answered: "For you to remain asleep till mid-day, that for
this one interval you might not afflict mankind."--I saw a tyrant lying
dormant at noon, and said, "This is mischief, and is best lulled to
sleep. It were better that such a reprobate were dead whose state of
sleep is preferable to his being awake."


XIII

I have heard of a king who had turned night into day in the midst of
conviviality, and in the gayety of intoxication was exclaiming--"I never
was in this life happier than at this present moment, for I have no
thought of evil or good, and care for nobody!"--A naked dervish, who had
taken up his rest in the cold outside, answered--"O thou, who in good
fortune hast not thy equal in the world, I admit that thou hast no cause
of care for thyself, but hast thou none for us?"--The king was pleased
at this speech. He put a purse of a thousand dinars out at the window,
and said: "O dervish! hold up your skirt." He replied, "Where can I find
a skirt, who have not a garment." The king was still more touched at the
hardship of his condition, and adding an honorary dress to that
donation, sent them out to him.

The dervish squandered all that ready cash within a few days, and
falling again into distress, returned.--"Money makes no stay in the hand
of a religious independent; neither does patience in a lover's heart,
nor water in a sieve."--At a time when the king had no thought about
him, they obtruded his case, and he took offence and turned away his
face. And it is on such an occasion that men of prudence and experience
have remarked that it behooves us to guard against the wrath and fury of
kings, whose noble thoughts are chiefly occupied with important affairs
of state, and cannot endure the importunate clamors of the vulgar.--The
bounty of the sovereign is forbid to him who does not watch a proper
opportunity. Till thou canst perceive a convenient time for obtruding an
opinion, undermine not thy consequence by idle talk.--The king said,
"Let this impudent beggar and spendthrift be beaten and driven away, who
in a short time dissipated such a sum of money, for the treasury of the
Beat-al-mal, or charity fund, is intended to afford mouthfuls to the
poor, and not bellyfuls to the imps of the devil.--That fool who can
illuminate the day with a camphorated taper must soon feel a want of oil
for his lamp at night."

One of his discreet ministers said: "O king, it were expedient to supply
such people with their means of subsistence by instalments, that they
may not squander their absolute necessaries; but, with respect to what
your majesty commanded as to coercion and prohibition, though it be
correct, a party might impute it to parsimony. Nor does it moreover
accord with the principles of the generous to encourage a man to hope
for kindness and then overwhelm him with heartbreaking distrust:--Thou
must not open upon thyself the door of covetousness; and when opened,
thou must not shut it with harshness.--Nobody will see the thirsty
pilgrims crowding towards the shore of the briny ocean; but men, birds,
and reptiles will flock together wherever they can meet a fresh water
fountain."


XIV

One of the ancient kings was easy with the yeomanry in collecting his
revenue, but hard on the soldiery in his issue of pay; and when a
formidable enemy showed its face, these all turned their
backs.--Whenever the king is remiss in paying his troops, the troops
will relax in handling their arms. What bravery can he display in the
ranks of battle whose hand is destitute of the means of living?

One of those who had excused themselves was in some sort my intimate. I
reproached him and said, "He is base and ungrateful, mean and
disreputable who, on a trifling change of circumstances, can desert his
old master and forget his obligation of many years' employment." He
replied: "Were I to speak out, I swear by generosity you would excuse
me. Peradventure, my horse was without corn, and the housings of his
saddle in pawn.--And the prince who, through parsimony, withholds his
army's pay cannot expect it to enter heartily upon his service."--Give
money to the gallant soldier that he may be zealous in thy cause, for if
he is stinted of his due he will go abroad for service.--_So long as a
warrior is replenished with food he will fight valiantly, and when his
belly is empty he will run away sturdily_.


XV

One of the vizirs was displaced, and withdrew into a fraternity of
dervishes, whose blessed society made its impression upon him and
afforded consolation to his mind. The king was again favorably disposed
towards him, and offered his reinstatement in office; but he consented
not, and said, "With the wise it is deemed preferable to be out of
office than to remain in place.--Such as sat within the cell of
retirement blunted the teeth of dogs, and shut the mouths of mankind;
they destroyed their writings, and broke their writing reeds, and
escaped the lash and venom of the critics."--The king answered: "At all
events I require a prudent and able man, who is capable of managing the
state affairs of my kingdom." The ex-minister said: "The criterion, O
sire, of a wise and competent man is that he will not meddle with such
like matters.--The homayi, or phoenix, is honored above all other birds
because it feeds on bones, and injures no living creature."

A Tamsil, or application in point.--They asked a Siyah-gosh, or
lion-provider, "Why do you choose the service of the lion?" He answered:
"Because I subsist on the leavings of his prey, and am secure from the
ill-will of my enemies under the asylum of his valor." They said: "Now
you have got within the shadow of his protection and admit a grateful
sense of his bounty, why do you not approach more closely, that he may
include you within the circle of select courtiers and number you among
his chosen servants?" He replied, "I should not thus be safe from his
violence."--Though a Guebre may keep his fire alight for a hundred
years, if he fall once within its flame it will burn him.--_Procul à
Jove, procul à fulmine_. It on one occasion may chance that the courtier
of the king's presence shall pick up a purse of gold, and the next that
he shall lie shorter by the head. And philosophers have remarked,
saying, "It is incumbent on us to be constantly aware of the fickle
dispositions of kings, who will one moment take offence at a salutation,
and at another make an honorary dress the return for an act of rudeness;
and they have said, That to be over much facetious is the accomplishment
of courtiers and blemish of the wise.--Be wary, and preserve the state
of thine own character, and leave sport and buffoonery to jesters and
courtiers."


XVI

One of my associates brought me a complaint of his perverse fortune,
saying, "I have small means and a large family, and cannot bear up with
my load of poverty. Often has a thought crossed my mind, suggesting, Let
me remove into another country, that in whatever way I can manage a
livelihood none may be informed of my good or bad luck."--(Often he
went asleep hungry, and nobody was aware, saying, "Who is he?" Often did
his life hang upon his lip, and none lamented over him.)--"On the other
hand, I reflect on the exultation of my rivals, saying, They will
scoffingly sneer behind my back, and impute my zeal in behalf of my
family to a want of humanity.--Do but behold that graceless vagabond who
can never witness the face of good fortune. He will consult the ease of
his own person and abandon to distress his wife and children.--And, as
is known, I have some small skill in the science of accounts. If,
through your respected interest, any office can be obtained that may be
the means of quieting my mind, I shall not, during the remainder of
life, be able to express my sense of its gratitude."

I replied, "O brother, the service of kings offers a twofold prospect--a
hope of maintenance and a fear for existence; and it accords not with
the counsel of the wise, under that expectation, to incur this risk.--No
tax-gatherer will enter the dervish's abode, saying, Pay me the rent of
a field and orchard; either put up with trouble and chagrin, or give thy
heartstrings to the crows to pluck."

He said, "This speech is not made as applicable to my case, nor have you
given me a categorical answer. Have you not heard what has been
remarked, 'His hand will tremble on rendering his account who has been
accessory to a dishonest act.--Righteousness will insure the divine
favor; I never met him going astray who took the righteous path.'--And
philosophers have said, 'Four orders of people are mortally afraid of
four others--the revenue embezzler, of the king; the thief, of the
watchman; the fornicator, of the eavesdropper; and the adulteress, of
the censor.' But what has he to fear from the comptroller who has a fair
set of account-books?--'Be not extravagant and corrupt while in office
if thou wishest that the malice of thy rival may be circumscribed on
settling thy accounts. Be undefiled, O brother, in thy integrity, and
fear nobody; washermen will beat only dirty clothes against a stone.'"

I replied, "The story of that fox suits your case, which they saw
running away, stumbling and getting up. Somebody asked him, 'What
calamity has happened to put you in such a state of trepidation?' He
said, 'I have heard that they are putting a camel in requisition.' The
other answered, 'O silly animal! what connection has a camel with you,
or what resemblance is there between you and it?' He said, 'Be silent;
for were the envious from malevolence to insist that this is a camel,
and I should be seized for one, who would be so solicitous about me as
to inquire into my case?' And before they can bring the antidote from
Irac the person bitten by the snake may be dead. In like manner, you
possess knowledge and integrity, discrimination and probity, yet spies
lie in ambush, and informers lurk in corners, who, notwithstanding your
moral rectitude, will note down the opposite; and should you anyhow
stand arraigned before the king, and occupy the place of his
reprehension, who in that state would step forward in your defence?
Accordingly, I would advise that you should secure the kingdom of
contentment, and give up all thoughts of preferment. As the wise have
said:--'The benefits of a sea voyage are innumerable; but if thou
seekest for safety, it is to be found only on shore.'"

My friend listened to this speech; he got into a passion, cavilled at my
fable, and began to question it with warmth and asperity, saying, "What
wisdom or propriety, good sense or morality, is there in this? Here is
verified that maxim of the sage, which tells us they are friends alone
that can serve us in a jail, for all our enemies may pretend friendship
at our own table.--'Esteem him not a friend who during thy prosperity
will brag of his love and brotherly affection.' I account him a friend
who will take his friend by the hand when struggling with despair, and
overwhelmed with misfortune."

I perceived within myself, saying, "He is disturbed, and listens to my
advice with impatience;" and, having called the sahib diwan, or lord
high treasurer, in virtue of a former intimacy that subsisted between
us, I stated his case and spoke so fully upon his skill and merits, that
he put him in nomination for a trifling office. After some time, having
adverted to his kindly disposition and approved of his good management,
his promotion was in train, and he got confirmed in a much higher
station. Thus was the star of his good fortune in ascension, till it
rose into the zenith of ambition; and he became the favorite of his
majesty the king, towards whom all turned for counsel, and upon whom all
eyes rested their hopes! I rejoiced at this prosperous change of his
affairs, and said:--"Repine not at thy bankrupt circumstances, nor let
thy heart despond, for the fountain of immortality has its source of
chaos.--_Take heed, O brother in affliction! and be not disheartened,
for God has in store many hidden mercies_.--Sit not down soured at the
revolutions of the times, for patience is bitter, yet it will yield
sweet fruit."

At that juncture I happened to accompany a party of friends on a journey
to Hijaz, or Arabia Petraea. On my return from the pilgrimage to Mecca,
he came out two stages to meet me. I perceived that his outward plight
was wretched, and his garb that of dervishes. I asked, "How is this?" He
replied, "Just as you said, a faction bore me a grudge and charged me
with malpractices; and the king, be his reign eternal, would not
investigate the truth of that charge, and my old and best friends stood
aloof from my defence, and overlooked my claims on our former
acquaintance.--When, through an act of God, a man has fallen, the whole
world will put their feet upon his neck; when they see that fortune has
taken him by the hand, they will put their hands upon their breasts, and
be loud in his praise.--In short, I underwent all manner of persecution
till within this week, that the tidings of the safe return of the
pilgrims reached us, when I got a release from my heavy durance and a
confiscation of my hereditary tenements." I said, "At that time you did
not listen to my admonition, when I warned you that the service of
princes is, like a voyage at sea, profitable but hazardous: you either
get a treasure or perish miserably.--The merchant gains the shore with
gold in both his hands, or a wave will one day leave him dead on its
beach."--Not deeming it generous any further to irritate a poor man's
wound with the asperity of reproach, or to sprinkle his sore with the
salt of harsh words, I made a summary conclusion in these two verses,
and said:--"Wert thou not aware that thou shouldst find fetters on thy
feet when thou wouldst not listen to the generous man's counsel? Thrust
not again thy finger into a scorpion's hole till thou canst endure the
pain of its sting."


XVII

I was the companion of a holy fraternity, whose manners were correct
from piety, and minds disciplined from probity. An eminent prince
entertained a high and respectful opinion of the worth of this
brotherhood, and had assigned it an endowment. Perhaps one of them
committed an act unworthy of the character of dervishes; for the good
opinion of that personage was forfeited, and the market of their support
shut. I wished that I could by any means re-establish the maintenance of
my friends, and attempted to wait on the great man; but his porter
opposed my entrance, and turned me away with rudeness. I excused him
conformably with what the witty have said:--"Till thou canst take an
introduction along with thee approach not the gate of a prince, vizir,
or lord; for the dog and the doorkeeper, on espying a beggar, will the
one seize his skirt and the other his collar."

When the favorite attendants of that great man were aware of my
situation, they ushered me into his presence with respect, and offered
me the highest seat; but in humility I took the lowest, and said:
"Permit that I, the slave of the abject, should seat myself on a level
with servants."--The great man answered, "My God, my God! what room is
there for this speech? Wert thou to seat thyself upon the pupil of mine
eye, I would court thy dalliance, for thou art lovely."

In short, I took my seat, and entered upon a variety of topics, till the
indiscretion of my friends was brought upon the carpet, when I said:
"What fault did the lord of past munificence remark, that his servant
should seem so contemptible in his sight? Individually with God is the
perfection of majesty and goodness, who can discern our failings and
continue to us his support." When the prince heard this sentiment he
subscribed to its omnipotence; and, with regard to the stipendiary
allowance of my friends, he ordered its continuance as heretofore, and a
faithful discharge of all arrears. I thanked him for his generosity,
kissed the dust of obeisance, apologized for my boldness, and at the
moment of taking my leave, added: "When the fane of the Caabah, at
Mecca, became their object from a far distant land, pilgrims would hurry
on to visit it for many farsangs. It behooves thee to put up with such
as we are, for nobody will throw a stone at a tree that bears no
fruit."


XVIII

A prince inherited immense riches by succeeding to his father. He opened
the hand of liberality, displayed his munificence, and bestowed
innumerable gifts upon his troops and people. "The brain will not be
perfumed by a censer of green aloes-wood; place it over the fire that it
may diffuse fragrance like ambergris. If ambitious of a great name, make
a practice of munificence, for the crop will not shoot till thou shalt
sow the seed."

A narrow-minded courtier began to admonish him, saying, "Verily, former
sovereigns have collected this wealth with scrupulosity and stored it
advisedly. Check your hand in this waste, for accidents wait ahead, and
foes lurk behind. God forbid that you should want it on a day of
need.--Wert thou to distribute the contents of a granary among the
people, every master of a family might receive a grain of rice; why not
exact a grain of silver from each, that thou mightest daily hoard a
chamber full of treasure?"

The prince turned his face aside from this speech, so contrary to his
own lofty sentiments, and harshly reprimanded him, saying, "A great and
glorious God made me sovereign of this property, that I might enjoy and
spend it; and posted me not a sentinel, to hoard and watch over
it.--Carown perished, who possessed forty magazines of treasure;
Nushirowan died not, who left behind him a fair reputation."


XIX

They have related that at a hunting seat they were roasting some game
for Nushirowan, and as there was no salt they were despatching a servant
to the village to fetch some. Nushirowan called to him, saying, "Take it
at its fair price, and not by force, lest a bad precedent be established
and the village desolated." They asked, "What damage can ensue from this
trifle?" He answered, "Originally, the basis of oppression in this world
was small, and every newcomer added to it, till it reached to its
present extent:--Let the monarch eat but one apple from a peasant's
orchard, and his guards, or slaves, will pull up the tree by its root.
From the plunder of five eggs, that the king shall sanction, his troops
will stick a thousand fowls on their spits."


XX

I have heard of a revenue-collector who would distrain the huts of the
peasantry, that he might enrich the treasury of the sovereign,
regardless of that maxim of the wise, who have said, "Whoever can offend
the Most High, that he may gain the heart of a fellow-creature, God on
high will instigate that creature against him, till he dig out the
foundation of his fortune:--That crackling in the flame is not caused by
burning rue, but it is the sigh of the afflicted that occasions it."

They say, of all animals the lion is the chief; and of beasts the ass is
the meanest; yet, with the concurrence of the wise, the burden-bearing
ass is preferable to the man-devouring lion. "The poor ass, though
devoid of understanding, will be held precious when carrying a burden;
oxen and asses that carry loads are preferable to men that injure their
fellow-creatures."

The king had reported to him a part of his nefarious conduct. He put him
to the rack, and tortured him to death. "Thou canst not obtain the
sovereign's approbation till thou make sure of the good-will of his
people. Wishest thou that God shall be bountiful to thee, be thou good
thyself to the creatures of God."

One who had suffered from his oppression passed him at the time of his
execution, and said: "It is not every man that may have the strong arm
of high station, that can in his government take an immoderate freedom
with the subjects' property. It is possible to cram a bone down the
throat, but when it sticks at the navel it will burst open the belly."


XXI

They tell a story of an evil-disposed person who struck a pious good man
on the head with a stone. Having no power of revenge, the dervish was
keeping the stone by him till an occasion when the sovereign let loose
the army of his wrath, and cast him into a dungeon. The poor man went up
and flung that stone at his head. The person spoke to him, saying, "Who
are you, and why did you throw this stone at my head?" He answered, "I
am that poor man, and this is the same stone that you on a certain
occasion flung at my head." He said, "Where have you been all this
time?" The poor man answered, "I stood in awe of your high station, but
now that I find you in a dungeon, I avail myself of the opportunity, as
they have said--'Whilst they saw the worthless man in prosperity, the
wise thought proper to show him respect. Now thou hast not sharp and
tearing nails, it is prudent for thee to defer to engage with the
wicked. Whoever grappled with a steel-armed wrist exposed his own silver
arm to torture. Wait till fortune can manacle his hands, then beat out
his brains to the satisfaction of thy friends.'"

       *       *       *       *       *


XXIII

One of King Umraw-layas's slaves had absconded, and people that went
after him brought him back. The vizir, who had a dislike to him, used
his interest to have him put to death, that the other slaves (as he
pretended) might not commit the same offence. The poor slave fell at
Umraw-layas's feet, and said: "Whatever may befall me, if thou approve
of it, it is so far proper. What plea can a vassal offer against his
lord and master's decree?--Nevertheless, inasmuch as I am the nurtured
gift of this house, I could not wish that on the last day's reckoning my
blood should stand charged to your account. If, at all events, you are
resolved to put this your slave to death, let it be done with a plea of
legality, that you may not be censured at the day of resurrection." The
king asked, "How can I set up a legal plea?" He replied, "Issue your
command that I may kill the vizir, then give an order to put me to death
in retaliation for him, that you may kill me according to law!" The king
smiled and asked the vizir, "What is your advice in this case?" The
vizir said, "O sovereign of the world! I beg, for the sake of God, that
you will manumit this audacious fellow as a propitiation at the tomb of
your forefathers, lest he also involve me in calamity. The fault was on
my side, in not doing justice to the saying of the wise, who have warned
us:--'When thou didst enter the lists with a practised slinger, in thy
want of skill thou exposest thine own head to be broken. When thou didst
discharge thine arrow at thy antagonist's face thou shouldst have been
upon thy guard, for thou hadst become his butt.'"


XXIV

King Zuzan had a minister of a generous spirit and kindly disposition,
who was polite to all persons while present, and spoke well of them when
absent. One of his acts happened to displease the king, who put him
under stoppages, and in rigorous confinement. The officers of the crown
were sensible of his former benefits, and pledged to show their
gratitude of them. Accordingly, whilst under their charge, they treated
him with courtesy and benevolence, and would not use any coercion or
violence:--"If thou desirest to remain at peace with a rival, whenever
he slanders thee behind thy back speak well of him to his face. The
perverse man cavils for the last word; unless thou preferest his bitter
remarks, make his mouth sweet."

Of the charge against him at the king's exchequer, part had been
adjusted according to its settlement, and he remained in durance for the
balance. A bordering prince sent him underhand a letter, stating, "The
sovereign of that quarter has not appreciated such worth, nay, has
dishonored it, and with us it bore a heavy price. If the precious mind
of a certain personage, may God facilitate his deliverance, will incline
favorably towards us, every possible exertion shall be made to
conciliate his good-will, and the cabinet ministers of this kingdom are
exulting in the prospect of seeing him, and anxious for the answer of
this letter." The minister made himself master of the contents. He
pondered on the danger, wrote such a brief answer as seemed discreet
upon the back of the letter, and returned it. One of the hangers-on at
court had notice of this circumstance. He apprised the king, saying, "A
certain person whom you have put in confinement is corresponding with a
neighboring prince." The king was wroth, and ordered an investigation of
this intelligence. The messenger was seized, and letter read. On the
back of it he had written, stating, "The good opinion of his Majesty
exceeds the merits of this slave; but the honored approbation he has
bestowed upon a servant cannot possibly have his consent, for he is the
fostered gift of this house, and he cannot, on a trifling change of
affection, betray his ancient benefactor and patron.--Though once in his
life he may grate thee with harshness, excuse him who on every occasion
else has soothed thee with kindness." The king commended his fidelity,
bestowed on him an honorary dress and largess, and made his excuses,
saying, "I was to blame, that could do you an injury." He replied, "In
this instance, my lord, your servant sees no blame that attaches to you;
but such was the ordination of God, whose name was glorified, that this
your devoted slave should verily be overtaken with a calamity.
Accordingly, it is more tolerable at the hand of you, who possess the
rights of past good, and have claims of gratitude on this servant:--Be
not offended with mankind should any mischief assail thee, for neither
pleasure nor pain originate with thy fellow-being. Know that the
contrariety of foe and friend proceeds from God, and that the hearts of
both are at his disposal. Though the arrow may seem to issue from the
bow, the intelligent can see that the archer gave it its aim."


XXV

I have heard that one of the kings of Arabia directed the officers of
his treasury, saying, "You will double a certain person's salary,
whatever it may be, for he is constant in attendance and ready for
orders, while the other courtiers are diverted by play, and negligent of
their duty." A good and holy man overheard this, and heaved a sigh and
groan from the bottom of his bosom. They asked, saying, "What vision did
you see?" He replied, "The exalted mansions of his devoted servants will
be after this manner portioned out at the judgment-seat of a Most High
and Mighty Deity!--If for two mornings a person is assiduous about the
person of the king, on the third he will in some shape regard him with
affection. The sincerely devout exist in the hope that they shall not
depart disappointed from God's threshold. The rank of a prince is the
reward of obedience. Disobedience to command is a proof of rejection.
Whoever has the aspect of the upright and good will lay the face of duty
at this threshold."


XXVI

They tell a story of a tyrant who bought fire-wood from the poor at a
low price, and sold it to the rich at an advance. A good and holy man
went up to him and said, "Thou art a snake, who bitest everybody thou
seest; or an owl, who diggest up and makest a ruin of the place where
thou sittest:--Although thy injustice may pass unpunished among us, it
cannot escape God, the knower of secrets. Be not unjust with the people
of this earth, that their complaints may not rise up to heaven."

They say the unjust man was offended at his words, turned aside his
face, and showed him no civility, as they have expressed it (in the
Koran):--_He, the glorified God, overtook him amidst his sins_:--till
one night, when the fire of his kitchen fell upon the stack of wood,
consumed all his property, and laid him from the bed of voluptuousness
upon the ashes of hell torments. That good and holy man happened to be
passing and observed that he was remarking to his friends, "I cannot
fancy whence this fire fell upon my dwelling." He said, "From the smoke
of the hearts of the poor!--Guard against the smoke of the
sore-afflicted heart, for an inside sore will at last gather into a
head. Give nobody's heart pain so long as thou canst avoid it, for one
sigh may set a whole world into a flame."

They have related that these verses were inscribed in golden letters
upon Kai-khosráu's crown:--"How many years, and what a continuance of
ages, that mankind shall on this earth walk over my head. As the kingdom
came to me from hand to hand, so it shall pass into the hands of
others."


XXVII

A person had become a master in the art of wrestling; he knew three
hundred and sixty sleights in this art, and could exhibit a fresh trick
for every day throughout the year. Perhaps owing to a liking that a
corner of his heart took for the handsome person of one of his scholars,
he taught him three hundred and fifty-nine of those feats, but he was
putting off the instruction of one, and under some pretence deferring
it.

In short the youth became such a proficient in the art and talent of
wrestling that none of his contemporaries had ability to cope with him,
till he at length had one day boasted before the reigning sovereign,
saying, "To any superiority my master possesses over me, he is beholden
to my reverence of his seniority, and in virtue of his tutorage;
otherwise I am not inferior in power, and am his equal in skill." This
want of respect displeased the king. He ordered a wrestling match to be
held, and a spacious field to be fenced in for the occasion. The
ministers of state, nobles of the court, and gallant men of the realm
were assembled, and the ceremonials of the combat marshalled. Like a
huge and lusty elephant, the youth rushed into the ring with such a
crash that had a brazen mountain opposed him he would have moved it from
its base. The master being aware that the youth was his superior in
strength, engaged him in that strange feat of which he had kept him
ignorant. The youth was unacquainted with its guard. Advancing,
nevertheless, the master seized him with both hands, and, lifting him
bodily from the ground, raised him above his head and flung him on the
earth. The crowd set up a shout. The king ordered them to give the
master an honorary dress and handsome largess, and the youth he
addressed with reproach and asperity, saying, "You played the traitor
with your own patron, and failed in your presumption of opposing him."
He replied, "O sire! my master did not overcome me by strength and
ability, but one cunning trick in the art of wrestling was left which he
was reserved in teaching me, and by that little feat had to-day the
upper hand of me." The master said, "I reserved myself for such a day as
this. As the wise have told us, 'Put it not so much into a friend's
power that, if hostilely disposed, he can do you an injury.' Have you
not heard what that man said who was treacherously dealt with by his own
pupil:--'Either in fact there was no good faith in this world, or nobody
has perhaps practised it in our days. No person learned the art of
archery from me who did not in the end make me his butt.'"


XXVIII

A solitary dervish had taken up his station at the corner of a desert. A
king was passing by him. Inasmuch as contentment is the enjoyment of a
kingdom, the dervish did not raise his head, nor show him the least mark
of attention; and, inasmuch as sovereignty is regal pomp, the king took
offence, and said, "The tribe of ragged mendicants resemble brute
beasts, and have neither grace nor good manners." The vizir stepped up
to him, and said: "O generous man! the sovereign of the universe has
passed by you; why did you not do him homage, and discharge the duty of
obeisance?" He answered and said, "Speak to your sovereign, saying:
Expect service from that person who will court your favor; let him
moreover know that kings are meant for the protection of the people, and
not the people for the subjects of kings.--Though it be for their
benefit that his glory is exalted, yet is the king but the shepherd of
the poor. The sheep are not intended for the service of the shepherd,
but the shepherd is appointed to tend the sheep.--To-day thou mayest
observe one man proud from prosperity, another with a heart sore from
adversity; have patience for a few days till the dust of the grave can
consume the brain of that vain and foolish head. When the record of
destiny came to take effect, the distinction of liege and subject
disappeared. Were a person to turn up the dust of the defunct, he could
not distinguish that of the rich man from the poor."

These sayings made a strong impression upon the king; he said: "Ask me
for something." He replied: "What I desire is, that you will not trouble
me again!" The king said, "Favor me with a piece of advice." He
answered: "Attend to them now that the good things of this life are in
thy hands; for wealth and dominion are passing from one hand into
another."

       *       *       *       *       *


XXX

A king ordered an innocent person to be put to death. The man said,
"Seek not your own hurt by venting any anger you may entertain against
me." The king asked, "How?" He replied, "The pain of this punishment
will continue with me for a moment, but the sin of it will endure with
you forever.--The period of this life passes by like the wind of the
desert. Joy and sorrow, beauty and deformity, equally pass away. The
tyrant vainly thought that he did me an injury, but round his neck it
clung and passed over me."

The king profited by this advice, spared his life, and asked his
forgiveness.


XXXI

The cabinet ministers of Nushirowan were debating an important affair of
state, and each delivered his opinion according to the best of his
judgment. In like manner the king also delivered his sentiments, and
Abu-zarchamahr, the prime minister, accorded in opinion with him. The
other ministers whispered him, saying, "What did you see superior in the
king's opinion that you preferred it to the judgment of so many wise
heads?" He replied: "Because the event is doubtful, and the opinion of
all rests in the pleasure of the most high God whether it shall be right
or wrong. Accordingly it is safer to conform with the judgment of the
king, because if that shall prove wrong, our obsequiousness to his will
shall secure us from his displeasure.--To sport an opinion contrary to
the judgment of the king were to wash our hands in our own blood. Were
he verily to say this day is night, it would behoove us to reply: Lo!
there are the moon and seven stars."


XXXII

An impostor plaited his hair and spake, saying, "I am a descendant of
Ali;" and he entered the city along with the caravan from Hijaz, saying,
"I come a pilgrim from Mecca;" and he presented a Casidah or elegy to
the king, saying, "I have composed it!" The king gave him money, treated
him with respect, and ordered him to be shown much flattering attention;
till one of the courtiers, who had that day returned from a voyage at
sea, said, "I saw him on the Eeduzha, or anniversary of sacrifice at
Busrah; how then can he be a Haji, or pilgrim?" Another said, "Now I
recollect him, his father was a Christian at Malatiyah (Malta); how then
can he be a descendant of Ali?" And they discovered his verses in the
divan of Anwari. The king ordered that they should beat and drive him
away, saying, "How came you to utter so many falsehoods?" He replied, "O
sovereign of the universe! I will utter one speech more, and if that may
not prove true, I shall deserve whatever punishment you may command."
The king asked, "What may that be?" He said: "If a peasant bring thee a
cup of junket, two measures of it will be water and one spoonful of it
buttermilk. If thy slave spake idly be not offended, for great
travellers deal most in the marvellous!" The king smiled and replied,
"You never in your life spake a truer word." He directed them to gratify
his expectations, and he departed happy and content.


XXXIII

They have related that one of the vizirs would compassionate the weak
and meditate the good of everybody. He happened to fall under the royal
displeasure, and they all strove to obtain his release. Such as had him
in custody were indulgent in their restraint, and his fellow-grandees
were loud in proclaiming his virtues, till the king pardoned his fault.
A good and holy man was apprised of these events, and said:--"In order
to conciliate the good-will of friends, it were better to sell our
patrimonial garden; in order to boil the pot of well-wishers, it were
good to convert our household furniture into fire-wood. Do good even to
the wicked; it is as well to shut a dog's mouth with a crumb."


XXXIV

One of Harun-al-Rashid's children went up to his father in a passion,
saying, "A certain officer's son has abused me in my mother's name."
Harun asked his ministers, "What ought to be such a person's
punishment?" One made a sign to have him put to death; another to have
his tongue cut out; and a third, to have him fined and banished. Harun
said: "O my child! it were generous to forgive him; but if you have not
resolution to do that, do you abuse his mother in return, yet not to
such a degree as to exceed the bounds of retaliation, for in that case
the injury would be on our part, and the complaint on that of the
antagonist.--In the opinion of the prudent he is no hero that can dare
to combat a furious elephant; but that man is in truth a hero who, when
provoked to anger, will not speak intemperately. A cross-grained fellow
abused a certain person; he bore it patiently, and said, O well-disposed
man! I am still more wicked than thou art calling me; for I know my
defects better than thou canst know them."


XXXV

I was seated in a vessel, along with some persons of distinction, when a
boat sunk astern of us and two brothers were drawn into the whirlpool.
One of our gentlemen called to the pilot, saying, "Save those two
drowning men and I will give you a hundred dinars." The pilot went and
rescued one of them, but the other perished. I observed, "That man's
time was come, therefore you were tardy in assisting him, and alert in
saving this other." The pilot smiled, and replied, "What you say is the
essence of inevitable necessity; yet was my zeal more hearty in rescuing
this one, because on an occasion when I was tired in the desert he set
me on a camel; whereas, when a boy, I had received a horsewhipping from
that other."--_God Almighty was all justice and equity: whoever labored
unto good experienced good in himself; and he who toiled unto evil
experienced evil_.--So long as thou art able grate nobody's heart, for
in this path there must be thorns. Expedite the concerns of the poor and
needy; for thy own concerns may need to be expedited.

       *       *       *       *       *


XXXVII

A person announced to Nushirowan the Just, saying, "I have heard that
God, glorious and great, has removed from this world a certain man who
was your enemy." He said, "Have you had any intelligence that he has
overlooked me? In the death of a rival I have no room for exultation,
since my life also is not to last forever."


XXXVIII

At the court of Kisra, or Nushirowan, a cabinet council was debating
some state affair. Abu-zarchamahr, who sat as president, was silent.
They asked him, "Why do you not join us in this discussion?" He replied,
"Such ministers of state are like physicians, and a physician will
prescribe a medicine only to a sick man; accordingly, so long as I see
that your opinions are judicious, it were ill-judged in me to obtrude a
word.--While business can proceed without my interference, it does not
behoove me to speak on the subject; but were I to see a blind man
walking into a pit, I would be much to blame if I remained silent."


XXXIX

When he reduced the kingdom of Misr, or Egypt, to obedience,
Harun-al-Rashid said, "In contempt of that impious rebel (Pharaoh), who,
in his pride of the sovereignty of Egypt, boasted a divinity, I will
bestow its government only on the vilest of my slaves." He had a negro
bondsman, called Khosayib, preciously stupid, and him he appointed to
rule over Egypt. They tell us that his judgment and understanding were
such, that when a body of farmers complained to him, saying, "We had
planted some cotton shrubs on the banks of the Nile, and the rains came
unseasonably, and swept them all away;"--he replied, "You ought to sow
wool, that it might not be swept away!" A good and holy man heard this,
and said: "Were our fortune to be increased in proportion to our
knowledge, none could be scantier than the share of the fool; but
fortune will bestow such wealth upon the ignorant as shall astonish a
hundred of the learned. Power and fortune depend not on knowledge, they
are obtained only through the aid of heaven; for it has often happened
in this world that the illiterate are honored, and the wise held in
scorn. The fool in his idleness found a treasure under a ruin; the
chemist, or projector, fell the victim of disappointment and chagrin."




CHAPTER II

Of the Morals of Dervishes


I

A person of distinction asked a parsa, or devout and holy man, saying,
"What do you offer in justification of a certain abid, another species
of Mohammedan monk, whose character others have been so ready to
question?" He replied: "In his outward behavior I see nothing to blame,
and with the secrets of his heart I claim no acquaintance.--Whomsoever
thou seest in a parsa's habit, consider him a parsa, or holy, and esteem
him as a good man; and if thou knowest not what is passing in his mind,
what business has the mohtasib, or censor, with the inside of the
house?"


II

I saw a dervish who, having laid his head at the fane of the Cabah of
Mecca, was complaining and saying, "O gracious, O merciful God! thou
knowest what can proceed from the sinful and ignorant that may be worthy
of thy acceptance!--I brought my excuse of imperfect performance, for I
have no claim on the score of obedience. The wicked repent them of their
sins; such as know God confess a deficiency of worship."

Abids, or the pious, seek a reward of their devotion, merchants a profit
on their traffic. I, a devoted servant, have brought hope, not
obedience, and have come as a beggar, and not for lucre!--_Do unto me
what is worthy of thyself; but deal not with me as I myself have
deserved_.--Whether thou wilt slay me or pardon my offence, my head and
face are prostrate at thy threshold. Thy servant has no will of his own;
whatever thou commandest, that he will perform. At the door of the Cabah
I saw a petitioner, who was praying and weeping bitterly. I ask not,
saying, "Approve of my obedience, but draw the pen of forgiveness across
my sins."


III

Within the sanctuary of the Cabah, at Mecca, I saw Abd-u'l-cadur the
Gilani, who having laid his face upon the Hasa, or black stone, was
saying, "Spare and pardon me, O God! and if, at all events, I am doomed
to punishment, raise me up at the day of resurrection blindfolded, that
I may not be put to shame in the eyes of the righteous." Every morning
when the day begins to dawn, with my face in the dust of humility, I am
saying, "O thou, whom I never can forget, dost thou ever bestow a
thought on thy servant?"


IV

A thief got into a holy man's cell; but, however much he searched, he
could find nothing to steal, and was going away disappointed. The good
soul was aware of what was passing, and taking up the rug on which he
had slept, he put it in his way that he might not miss his object.--I
have heard that the heroes on the path of God will not distress the
hearts of their enemies. How canst thou attain this dignified station
who art at strife and warfare with thy friends?

The loving kindness of the righteous, whether before your face or behind
your back, is not such that they will censure you when absent, and offer
to die for you when present.--Face to face meek as a lamb, behind your
back like a man-devouring wolf. Whoever brings you, and sums up the
faults of others, will doubtless expose your defects to them.


V

Some travelling mendicants had agreed to club in a body and participate
in the cares and comforts of society. I expressed a wish that I might be
one of the party, but they refused to admit me. I said: "It is rare and
inconsistent with the generous dispositions of dervishes to turn their
faces from a good-fellowship with the poor, and to deny them its
benefits, for on my part I feel such a zeal and good-will, that in the
service of the liberal I am likely to prove rather an active associate
than a grievous load.--_Though not one of those who are mounted on the
camels, I will do my best, that I may carry their saddle-cloths_."

One of them answered and said: "Be not offended at what you have heard,
for some days back a thief joined us in the garb of a dervish, and
strung himself upon the cord of our acquaintance.--How can people know
what he is that wears that dress? The writer can alone tell the
contents of the letter." In consequence of that reverence in which the
dervish character is held, they did not think of his profligacy and
admitted him into their society. The outward character of the holy is a
patched cloak; this much is sufficient, that it has a threadbare hood.
Be industrious in thy calling, and wear whatever dress thou choosest.
Put a diadem on thy head, and bear a standard on thy shoulder. Holiness
does not consist in a coarse frock. Let a zahid, or holy man, be truly
pious, and he may dress in satin. Sanctity is not merely a change of
dress; it is an abandonment of the world, its pomp and vanity. It
requires a hero to wear a coat of mail, for what would it profit to
dress an hermaphrodite, or coward, in a suit of armor?

In short we had one day travelled till dark, and at night composed
ourselves for sleep under the wall of a castle. That graceless thief
took up his neighbor's ewer, saying, "I am going to my ablutions;" and
he was setting out for plunder. Behold a religious man, who threw a
patched cloak over his shoulders; he made the covering of the Cabah the
housing of an ass. So soon as he got out of the sight of the dervishes,
he scaled a bastion of the fort and stole a casket. Before break of day
that gloomy-minded robber had got a great way off, and left his innocent
companions asleep. In the morning they were all carried into the
citadel, and thrown into a dungeon. From that time we have declined any
addition to our party, and kept apart to ourselves, _for there is safety
in unity, but danger in duality or a multitude_.--When an individual of
a sect committed an act of folly, the high and the low sunk in their
dignity. Dost thou not see that one ox in a pasturage will cast a slur
upon all the oxen of the village?

I said: "Let there be thanksgiving to a Deity of majesty and glory that
I am not forbid the benefits of dervishes, notwithstanding I am in
appearance excluded from their society; and I am instructed by this
narration, and others like me may profit by its moral during their
remaining lives.--From one indiscreet person in an assembly a host of
the prudent may get hurt. If they fill a cistern to the brim with
rose-water, and let a dog fall into it, the whole will be
contaminated."


VI

A zahid was the guest of a king. When he sat down at table he ate more
sparingly from that than his appetite inclined him, and when he stood up
at prayers he continued longer at them than it was his custom; that they
might form a high opinion of his sanctity.--I fear, O Arab! that thou
wilt not reach the Caabah; for the road that thou art taking leads to
Turkistan, or the region of infidels.

When he returned home he ordered the table to be spread that he might
eat. His son was a youth of a shrewd understanding. He said: "O father,
perhaps you ate little or nothing at the feast of the king?" He
answered, "In his presence I ate scarce anything that could answer its
purpose!" Then retorted the boy, "Repeat also your prayers, that nothing
be omitted that can serve a purpose." Yes, thy virtues thou hast exposed
in the palm of thy hand, thy vices thou hast hid under thy arm-pit. Take
heed, O hypocrite, what thou wilt be able to purchase with this base
money on the day of need or day of judgment.


VII

I remember that in my early youth I was overmuch religious and vigilant,
and scrupulously pious and abstinent. One night I sat up in attendance
on my father, on whom be God's mercy, never once closed my eyes during
the whole night, and held the precious Koran open on my lap, while the
company around us were fast asleep. I said to my father: "Not an
individual of these will raise his head that he may perform his
genuflections, or ritual of prayer; but they are all so sound asleep,
that you might conclude they were dead." He replied: "O emanation of
your father, you had also better have slept than that you should thus
calumniate the failings of mankind.--The braggart can discern only his
own precious person; he will draw the veil of conceit all around him.
Were fortune to bestow upon him God's all-searching eye, he would find
nobody weaker than himself."

       *       *       *       *       *


X

On one occasion, at the metropolitan mosque of Balbek, I was holding
forth, by way of admonition to a congregation cold and dead at heart,
and not to be moved from the materialism of this world into the paths of
mysticism. I perceived that the spirit of my discourse was making no
impression, nor were the sparks of my enthusiasm likely to strike fire
into their humid wood. I grew weary of instructing brutes, and of
holding up a mirror to an assembly of the blind; but the door of
exposition was thrown open, and the chain of argument extended; and in
explanation of this text in the Koran--_We are nearer to him_ (God)
_than the vein of his neck_.--I had reached that passage of my sermon
where I thus express myself:--"Such a mistress as is closer to me in her
affection than I am to myself, but this is marvellous that I am
estranged from her. What shall I say, and to whom can I tell it, that
she lies on my bosom and I am alienated from her."

The intoxicating spirit of this discourse ran into my head, and the
dregs of the cup still rested in my hand, when a traveller, as passing
by, entered the outer circle of the congregation, and its expiring
undulation lit upon him. He sent forth such a groan that the others in
sympathy with him joined in lamentation, and the rawest of the assembly
bubbled in unison. I exclaimed, "Praise be to God! those far off are
present in their knowledge, and those near by are distant from their
ignorance. If the hearer has not the faculty of comprehending the
sermon, expect not the vigor of genius in the preacher. Give a scope to
the field of inclination, that the orator may have room to strike the
ball of eloquence over it."


XI

One night in the desert of Mecca, from an excess of drowsiness, I had
not a foot to enable me to proceed; and, laying my head on the earth, I
gave myself up for lost, and desired the camel-driver to leave me to my
fate.--How could the foot of the poor jaded pedestrian go on, now that
the Bactrian dromedary got impatient of its burden? While the body of a
fat man is getting lean, a lean man must fall the victim of a hardship.

The camel-driver replied: "O brother, holy Mecca is ahead, and the
profane robber behind; if you come forward you escape, but if you stay
here you die!" During the night journey of the caravan, and in the track
of the desert, it is fascinating to dose under the acacia-thorn tree;
but, on this indulgence, we must resign all thoughts of surviving it.


XII

I saw on the sea-shore a holy man who had been torn by a tiger, and
could get no salve to heal his wound. For a length of time he suffered
much pain, and was all along offering thanks to the Most High. They
asked him, saying, "Why are you so grateful?" He answered, "God be
praised that I am overtaken with misfortune and not with sin! Were that
beloved friend, God, to give me over to death, take heed, and think not
that I should be solicitous about life. I would ask, What hast thou seen
amiss in thy poor servant that thy heart should take offence at me? for
that could alone give me a moment's uneasiness."


XIII

Having some pressing occasion, a dervish stole a rug from the hut of a
friend. The judge ordered that they should cut off his hand. The owner
of the rug made intercession for him, saying, "I have forgiven him." The
judge replied, "At your instance I cannot relax the extreme sentence of
the law." He said: "In what you ordered you spoke justly. Nevertheless,
whoever steals a portion of any property dedicated to alms must not
suffer the forfeiture of his hand, for a _religious mendicant is not the
proprietor of anything_; and whatever appertains to dervishes is devoted
to the necessitous." The judge withdrew his hand from punishing him, and
by way of reprimand asked, "Had the world become so circumscribed that
you could not commit a theft but in the dwelling of such a friend?" He
answered, "Have you not heard what they have said, 'Sweep everything
away from the houses of your friends, but knock not at the doors of your
enemies.' When overwhelmed with calamity let not thy body pine in
misery. Strip thy foes of their skins, and thy friends of their
jackets."


XIV

A king said to a holy man, "Are you ever thinking of me?" "Yes," replied
he, "at such time as I am forgetting God Almighty! He will wander all
around whom God shall drive from his gate; and he will not let him go to
another door whom he shall direct into his own."


XV

One of the righteous in a dream saw a king in paradise, and a parsa, or
holy man, in hell. He questioned himself, saying, "What is the cause of
the exaltation of this, and the degradation of that, for we have fancied
their converse?" A voice came from above, answering, "This king is in
heaven because of his affection for the holy, and that parsa is in hell
because of his connection with the kingly."--What can a coarse frock,
rosary, and patched cloak avail? Abstain from such evil works as may
defile thee. There is no occasion to put a felt cowl upon thy head. Be a
dervish in thy actions, and wear a Tartarian coronet.


XVI

A pedestrian, naked from head to foot, left Cufah with the caravan of
pilgrims for Hijaz, or Mecca, and came along with us. I looked at and
saw him destitute of every necessary for the journey; yet he was
cheerfully pushing on, and bravely remarking:--"I am neither mounted on
a camel nor a mule under a burden. I am neither the lord of vassals nor
the vassal of a lord. I think not of present sorrows or past vanities,
but breathe the breath of ease and live the life of freedom!"

A gentleman mounted on a camel said to him, "O dervish, whither are you
going? return, or you must perish miserably." He did not heed what he
said, but entered the desert on foot and proceeded. On our reaching the
palm plantation of Mahmud, fate overtook the rich man, and he died. The
dervish went up to his bier and said, "I did not perish amidst hardship
on foot, and you expired on a camel's back." A person sat all night
weeping by the side of a sick friend. Next day he died, and the invalid
recovered!--Yes! many a fleet horse perished by the way, and that lame
ass reached the end of the journey. How many of the vigorous and hale
did they put underground, and that wounded man recovered!

       *       *       *       *       *


XVIII

In the territory of the Greeks a caravan was attacked by robbers, and
plundered of much property. The merchants set up a lamentation and
complaint, and besought the intercession of God and the prophet; but all
to no purpose.--When the gloomy-minded robber is flushed with victory,
what will he feel for the traveller's despair.

Lucman, the fabulist and philosopher, happened to be among them. One of
the travellers spoke to him, saying, "Direct some maxims of wisdom and
admonition to them; perhaps they may restore a part of our goods; for it
were a pity that articles of such value should be cast away." He
answered: "It were a pity to cast away the admonitions of wisdom upon
them!" From that iron which the rust has corroded thou canst not
eradicate the canker with a file. What purpose will it answer to preach
to the gloomy-minded infidel? A nail of iron cannot penetrate into a
piece of flint.

Perhaps the fault has been on our part (in not being charitable), as
they have said:--"On the day of thy prosperity remember the bankrupt and
needy, for by visiting the hearts of the poor with charity thou shalt
divert calamity. When the beggar solicits alms from thee, bestow it with
a good grace; otherwise the tyrant may come and take it by force."

       *       *       *       *       *


XX

They asked Lucman, the fabulist, "From whom did you learn manners?" He
answered, "From the unmannerly, for I was careful to avoid whatever part
of their behavior seemed to me bad." They will not speak a word in joke
from which the wise cannot derive instruction; let them read a hundred
chapters of wisdom to a fool, and they will all seem but a jest to him.


XXI

They tell a story of an abid, who in the course of a night would eat ten
mans, or pounds, of food, and in his devotions repeat the whole Koran
before morning. A good and holy man heard this, and said, "Had he eaten
half a loaf of bread, and gone to sleep, he would have done a more
meritorious act." Keep thy inside unencumbered with victuals, that the
light of good works may shine within thee; but thou art void of wisdom
and knowledge, because thou art filled up to the nose with food.


XXII

The divine favor had placed the lamp of grace in the path of a wanderer
in forbidden ways, till it directed him into the circle of the
righteous, and the blessed society of dervishes, and their spiritual
co-operation enabled him to convert his wicked propensities into
praiseworthy deeds, and to restrain himself in sensual indulgences; yet
were the tongues of calumniators questioning his sincerity, and saying,
He retains his original habits, and there is no trusting to his piety
and goodness.--By the means of repentance thou mayest get delivered from
the wrath of God, but there is no escape from the slanderous tongue of
man.--He was unable to put up with the virulence of their remarks, and
took his complaint to his ghostly father, saying, "I am much troubled by
the tongues of mankind." The holy man wept, and answered, "How can you
be sufficiently grateful for this blessing, that you are better than
they represent you?--How often wilt thou call aloud saying, The
malignant and envious are calumniating wretched me, that they rise up to
shed my blood, and that they sit down to devise me mischief. Be thou
good thyself, and let people speak evil of thee; it is better than to be
wicked, and that they should consider thee as good."--But, on the other
hand, behold me, of whose perfectness all entertain the best opinion,
while I am the mirror of imperfection.--Had I done what they have said,
I should have been a pious and moral man.--_Verily, I may conceal myself
from the sight of my neighbor, but God knows what is secret and what is
open_.--There is a shut door between me and mankind, that they may not
pry into my sins; but what, O Omniscience! can a closed door avail
against thee, who art equally informed of what is manifest or concealed?


XXIII

I lodged a complaint with one of our reverend Shaikhs, saying: "A
certain person has borne testimony against my character on the score of
lasciviousness." He answered, "Shame him by your continence.--Be thou
virtuously disposed, that the detractor may not have it in his power to
indulge his malignity. So long as the harp is in tune, how can it have
its ear pulled (or suffer correction by being put in tune) by the
minstrel?"


XXIV

They asked one of the Shaikhs of Sham, or Syria, saying: "What is the
condition of the Sufi sect?" He answered, "Formerly they were in this
world a fraternity dispersed in the flesh, but united in the spirit; but
now they are a body well clothed carnally, and ragged in divine
mystery." Whilst thy heart will be every moment wandering into a
different place, in thy recluse state thou canst not see purity; but
though thou possessest rank and wealth, lands and chattels, if thy heart
be fixed on God, thou art a hermit.


XXV

On one occasion we had marched, I recollect, all the night along with
the caravan, and halted towards morning on the skirts of the wilderness.
One mystically distracted, who accompanied us on that journey, set up a
loud lamentation at dawn, went a-wandering into the desert, and did not
take a moment's rest. Next day I said to him, "What condition was that?"
He replied, "I remarked the nightingales that they had come to carol in
the groves, the pheasants to prattle on the mountains, the frogs to
croak in the pools, and the wild beasts to roar in the forests, and
thought with myself, saying, It cannot be generous that all are awake in
God's praise and I am wrapt up in the sleep of forgetfulness!--Last
night a bird was carolling towards the morning; it stole my patience
and reason, my fortitude and understanding. My lamentation had perhaps
reached the ear of one of my dearly-beloved friends. He said, 'I did not
believe that the singing of a bird could so distract thee!' I answered,
This is not the duty of the human species, that the birds are singing
God's praise and that I am silent."


XXVI

Once, on a pilgrimage to Hijaz, I was the fellow-traveller of some
piously-disposed young men, and on a footing of familiarity and intimacy
with them. From time to time we were humming a tune and chanting a
spiritual hymn, and an abid, who bore us company, kept disparaging the
morals of the dervishes, and was callous to their sufferings, till we
reached the palm plantation of the tribe of Hulal, when a boy of a tawny
complexion issued from the Arab horde and sung such a plaintive melody
as would arrest the bird in its flight through the air. I remarked the
abid's camel that it kicked up and pranced, and, throwing the abid,
danced into the wilderness. I said: "O reverend Shaikh! that spiritual
strain threw a brute into an ecstasy, and it is not in like manner
working a change in you!--Knowest thou what that nightingale of the dawn
whispered to me? What sort of man art thou, indeed, who art ignorant of
love?--The camel is in an ecstasy of delight from the Arab's song. If
thou hast no taste to relish this, thou art a cross-grained brute.--Now
that the camel is elated with rapture and delight, if a man is
insensible to these he is an ass.--_The zephyr, gliding through the
verdure on the earth, shakes the twig of the ban-tree, but moves not the
solid rock_.--Whatever thou beholdest is loud in extolling him. That
heart which has an ear is full of the divine mystery. It is not the
nightingale that alone serenades his rose; for every thorn on the
rose-bush is a tongue in his or God's praise!"


XXVII

A king had reached the end of his days and had no heir to succeed him.
He made his will, stating, "You will place the crown of sovereignty upon
the head of whatever person first enters the city gate in the morning,
and commit the kingdom to his charge." It happened that the first man
that presented himself at the city gate was a beggar, who had passed his
whole life in scraping broken meat and in patching rags. The ministers
of state and nobles of the court fulfilled the conditions of the king's
will, and laid the keys of the treasury and citadel at his feet.

For a time the dervish governed the kingdom, till some of the chiefs of
the empire swerved from their allegiance, and the princes of the
territories on every side rose in opposition to him, and levied armies
for the contest. In short, his troops and subjects were routed and
subdued, and several of his provinces taken from him.

The dervish was hurt to the soul at these events, when one of his old
friends, who had been the companion of his state of poverty, returned
from a journey and found him in such dignity. He exclaimed:
"Thanksgiving be to a Deity of majesty and glory that lofty fortune
succored you and prosperity was your guide, till roses issued from your
thorns and the thorns were extracted from your feet, and till you
arrived at this elevated rank!--_Along with hardship there is ease; or,
to sorrow succeeds joy_.--The plant is at one season in flower and at
another withered; the tree is at one time naked and at another clothed
with leaves." He said: "O, my dear friend, offer me condolence, for here
is no place for congratulation. When you last saw me I had to think of
getting a crumb of bread; now I have the cares of a whole kingdom on my
head. If the world be adverse, we are the victims of pain; if
prosperous, the fettered slaves of affection for it. Amidst this life no
calamity is more afflicting than that, whether fortunate or not, the
mind is equally disquieted. If thou covetest riches, ask not but for
contentment, which is an immense treasure. Should a rich man throw money
into thy lap, take heed, and do not look upon it as a benefit; for I
have often heard from the great and good that the patience of the poor
is more meritorious than the gift of the rich. Were King Bahram Ghor to
distribute a whole roasted elk, it would not be equal to the gift of a
locust's leg from an ant."


XXVIII

A person had a friend who was holding the office of king's divan, or
prime minister, and it happened that he had not seen him for some time.
Somebody remarked, saying, "It is some time since you saw such a
gentleman." He answered, "I am no ways anxious about seeing him." One of
the divan's people chanced to be present. He asked, "What has happened
amiss that you should dislike to visit him?" He replied, "There is no
dislike; but my friend, the divan, can be seen at a time when he is out
of office, and my idle intrusion might not come amiss." Amidst the state
patronage and authority of office they might take umbrage at their
acquaintance; but on the day of vexation and loss of place they would
impart their mental disquietudes to their friends.


XXIX

Abu-Horairah was making a daily visit to the prophet Mustafa Mohammed,
on whom be God's blessing and peace. He said: "_O Abu-Horairah! let me
alone every other day, that so affection may increase_; that is, come
not every day, that we may get more loving!"

They said to a good and holy man, "Notwithstanding all these charms
which the sun commands, we have never heard of anybody that has fallen
in love with him!" He answered, "It is because he is seen every day,
unless during the winter, when he is veiled (in the clouds), and thus
much coveted and loved."--To visit mankind has no blame in it, but not
to such a degree as to let them say, Enough of it. If we see occasion to
interrogate ourselves, we need not listen to the reprehension of others.


XXX

Having taken offence with the society of my friends at Damascus, I
retired into the wilderness of the Holy Land, or Jerusalem, and sought
the company of brutes till such time as I was made a prisoner by the
Franks, and employed by them, along with some Jews, in digging earth in
the ditches of Tripoli. At length one of the chiefs of Aleppo, between
whom and me an intimacy had of old subsisted, happening to pass that
way, recognized me, and said, "How is this? and how came you to be thus
occupied?" I replied: "What can I say?--I was flying from mankind into
the forests and mountains, for my resource was in God and in none else.
Fancy to thyself what my condition must now be, when forced to associate
with a tribe scarcely human?--To be linked in a chain with a company of
acquaintance were pleasanter than to walk in a garden with strangers."

He took pity on my situation; and, having for ten dinars redeemed me
from captivity with the Franks, carried me along with him to Aleppo.
Here he had a daughter, and her he gave me in marriage, with a dower of
a hundred dinars. Soon after this damsel turned out a termagant and
vixen, and discovered such a perverse spirit and virulent tongue as
quite unhinged all my domestic comfort.--A scolding wife in the dwelling
of a peaceful man is his hell, even in this world. Protect and guard us
against a wicked inmate. Save us, O Lord, and preserve us from the
fiery, or hell, torture.

Having on one occasion given a liberty to the tongue of reproach, she
was saying, "Are you not the fellow whom my father redeemed from the
captivity of the Franks for ten dinars?" I replied, "Yes, I am that same
he delivered from captivity for ten dinars, and enslaved me with you for
a hundred!" I have heard that a reverend and mighty man released a sheep
from the paws and jaws of a wolf. That same night he was sticking a
knife into its throat, when the spirit of the sheep reproached him,
saying, "Thou didst deliver me from the clutches of a wolf, when I at
length saw that thou didst prove a wolf to me thyself."

       *       *       *       *       *


XXXIII

One of the holy men of Syria had passed many years of devotion in the
wilderness, and was feeding on the leaves of trees. The king of that
country, in the way of a pilgrimage, visited him, and said, "If you can
see the propriety of removing into my capital I will prepare an abode,
where you may perform your devotions more at ease than in this place,
and others may benefit by the blessing of your spiritual communion, and
be edified by the example of your pious labors." The hermit was adverse
to this advice, and turned away his face. One of the king's ministers
spoke to him, saying: "For the satisfaction of his Majesty, it were
proper that you would for a few days remove into the city, and ascertain
the nature of the place; when, if it should prove that your purity might
be tarnished by coming in contact with the wicked, you have still the
option left of moving back."

It is reported that they prevailed on the hermit to accompany them into
the city; and, in a garden near the sacred residence of the king,
prepared for him a dwelling, which, like the mansions of paradise, was
rejoicing the heart, and exhilarating the soul.--Its damask roses were
blooming as the cheeks of the lovely, and its tufted spikenard like the
ringlets of our mistresses. It had as much to fear from the angry blasts
of winter as the babe who has not yet tasted its nurse's milk: _boughs
of trees on which hung crimson flowers, that gleamed like a flame amidst
their dusky foliage_.

Forthwith the king sent him a moon-faced damsel.--Such was this delicate
crescent of the moon, and fascination of the holy, this form of an
angel, and decoration of a peacock, that let them once behold her, and
continence must cease to exist in the constitutions of the chaste.

And, in like manner, there followed her a youth of such rare beauty and
exquisite symmetry, that the powerful grasp of his charms had broken the
wrists of the pious, and tied up behind their backs the arms of the
upright.--Mankind stand around him _parched with thirst, whilst he, who
seems thy cup-bearer, will give thee no drink_.--The eye could not be
satiated by beholding him, like the dropsical man with water by looking
at the river Euphrates.

The hermit began to relish dainty food, and to wear sumptuous apparel;
to regale himself with fruits, perfumes, and sweetmeats; and to behold
with delight the charms of the handmaid and bondsman. And the wise have
said, "The ringlets of the lovely are a chain on the feet of reason, and
a snare for the bird of wisdom."--To the mystery of thy service I
devoted my heart, religion, and all my mental faculties; verily, I am
now the bird of reason, and thou art the lure and bait.

In short, the good fortune of his many years of sanctity ran to waste,
as has been said:--"Whatever he had laid up from theologician, sage, or
saint, or of recondite knowledge from the eloquent and pure of spirit,
now that he had stooped to mix with a vile world, like the feet of a fly
he got entangled in its honey."

The king had the curiosity of making him another visit, and found the
hermit much altered from what he first saw of him. His face had become
fair and ruddy, and his body plump and jolly; and he was reclining at
his ease on cushions of brocade, and had the Houri-like damsel lolling
by his side, and the fairy-formed youth holding a fly-flap of peacock's
feathers in his hand, and standing by him in attendance. The king
congratulated him upon his portly appearance, and they entered together
upon a variety of topics, till his majesty concluded by observing, "In
this world I have an affection for these two orders of mankind, the
learned and the recluse." A philosophic vizir, and man of much worldly
experience, happened to be present. He said: "O sire! such is the canon
of affection that you should confer a benefit on each. Give money to the
learned man, that he may teach others; and give nothing to the hermit,
that he may remain an anchorite.--A zahid, or hermit, stands in need of
neither diram nor dinar; when an anchorite takes either, look out for
another.--Whoever is virtuously disposed, and holds a mystical
communication with God, is sufficient of a hermit without requiring the
bread of charity, or the crumbs of mendicity. The tapering finger of the
lovely, and her soul-deluding ear-lobe, are decoration enough without a
turquoise ring or ear-jewel. Tell that piously-disposed and
serene-minded dervish that he needs not the bread of consecration or
scraping of beggary; tell that handsome and fair-faced matron that she
does not require paint, coloring, or jewelry.--When I have of my own,
and covet what is another's, if they esteem me not a hermit they treat
me as I merit."


XXXIV

Conformably with the above apologue, a king had a business of importance
in hand. He said: "If this affair prosper to my wish I will distribute
among the recluses a certain sum in dirams." Now his object was
accomplished, and mind made easy, he thought it incumbent to fulfil the
condition of his eleemosynary vow, and gave a bag of dinars to a
favorite servant, that he might distribute them among the anchorites.
This was a discreet and considerate young man. He wandered about for the
whole day; and, returning in the evening, kissed the bag of money, and
laid it before the king, saying, "However much I sought after, I have
met with no recluses!" The king answered, "What a story is this? for I
myself know four hundred recluses within this city." He said, "O
sovereign of the universe! such as are recluses do not take money; and
such as take money are not anchorites!" The king smiled, and observed to
his courtiers, "However much I reverence and favor this tribe of God's
worshippers, this saucy fellow expresses for them a spite and ill-will;
and, if you desire the truth, he has justice on his side. Instead of
that hermit who took dirams and dinars, get hold of one who is more an
anchorite."


XXXV

They asked a profoundly-learned man, saying, "What is your opinion of
consecrated bread, or almstaking?" He answered, "If with the view of
composing their minds, and promoting their devotions, it is lawful to
take it; but if monks collect for the sake of an endowment, it is
forbidden. Good and holy men have received the bread of consecration for
the sake of religious retirement; and are not recluses, that they may
receive such bread."


XXXVI

A dervish came to put up at a place where the master of the house was a
gentleman of an hospitable disposition. He had as his guests an assembly
of learned and witty men, each of whom was repeating such a jest, or
anecdote, as is usual with the facetious. Having travelled across a
desert, the dervish was much fatigued, and well-nigh famished. One of
the company observed, in the way of pleasantry, "You must also repeat
something." The dervish answered, "I am not, like the others,
overstocked with learning and wit, nor am I much read in books; and you
must be satisfied with my reciting one distich." One and all eagerly
cried, "Let us hear it." He said, "Hungry as I am, I sit by a table
spread with food, like a bachelor at the entrance of a bath full of
women!"

They applauded what he said, and ordered the tray to be placed before
him. The lord of the feast said, "Stay your appetite, my friend! till my
handmaids can prepare for you some forced meat." He raised his head from
the tray, and answered, "Say there is no need for forced meat on my
tray, for a crust of plain bread is sufficient for one baked as I have
been in the desert."


XXXVII

A disciple complained to his ghostly father, saying, "What can I do, for
I am much annoyed by the people, who are interrupting me with their
frequent visits, and break in upon my precious hours with their
impertinent intrusions." He replied, "To such of them as are poor lend
money, and from such as are rich ask some in loan; and neither of them
will trouble you again." Let a beggar be the harbinger of an army of
Islam, or the orthodox, and the infidel will fly his importunity as far
as the wall of China.

       *       *       *       *       *


XXXIX

A drunken fellow had lain down to sleep on the highway, and was quite
overcome with the fumes of intoxication. An abid was passing close by,
and looking at him with scorn. The youth raised his head, and said,
"_Whenever they pass anything shameful they pass it with
compassion.--Whenever thou beholdest a sinner, hide and bear with his
transgressions: thou, who art aware of them, why not overlook my sins
with pity_?--Turn not away, O reverend sir! from a sinner; but look upon
him with compassion. Though in my actions I am not a hero, do thou pass
by as the heroic would pass me."


XL

A gang of dissolute vagabonds broke in upon a dervish, used opprobrious
language, and beat and ill-used him. In his helplessness he carried his
complaint before his ghostly father, and said, "Thus it has befallen
me." He replied: "O my son! the patched cloak of dervishes is the
garment of resignation; whosoever wears this garb, and cannot bear with
disappointment, is a hypocrite, and to him our cloth is forbidden.--A
vast and deep river is not rendered turbid by throwing into it a stone.
That religious man who can be vexed at an injury is as yet a shallow
brook.--If thou art subjected to trouble, bear with it; for by
forgiveness thou art purified from sin. Seeing, O brother! that we are
ultimately to become dust, be humble as the dust, before thou moulderest
into dust."


XLI

Hear what occurred once at Bagdad in a dispute that took place between a
roll-up curtain and standard. Covered with the road-dust, and jaded with
a march, the standard, in reproach, observed to the curtain: "Thou and I
are gentlemen in livery; we are fellow-servants at the court of his
majesty. I never enjoy a moment's relief from duty; early and late I am
equally marching. Thou hast never experienced any peril or a siege, the
heavy sand of the desert or dust of a whirlwind; my foot is most forward
in any enterprise. Then why art thou my superior in dignity? Thou art
cared for by youths with faces splendid as the moon, and handled by
damsels scenting like jasmine; while I am fallen into the hands of raw
recruits, am rolled up on our march, and turned upside down." The
curtain answered: "I lay my head humble at the threshold, and hold it
not up like thine, flaring in the face of heaven! Whoever is thus vainly
rearing his crest exalts himself only to be humbled."


XLII

A good and holy man saw a huge and strong fellow, who, having got much
enraged, was storming with passion and foaming at the mouth. He asked,
"What has happened to this man?" Somebody answered, "Such a one has
given him bad names!" He said, "This paltry wretch is able to carry a
thousand-weight of stone, and cannot bear with one light word! Cease to
boast of thy strong arm and pretended manhood, infirm as thou art in
mind, and mean in spirit. What difference is there between such a man
and a woman? Though thou art strong of arm, let thy mouth utter sweet
words; it is no proof of courage to thrust thy fist into another man's
face:--Though thou art able to tear the scalp off an elephant, if
deficient in humanity, thou art no hero. The sons of Adam are formed
from dust; if not humble as the dust, they fall short of being men."

       *       *       *       *       *


XLIV

A facetious old gentleman of Bagdad gave his daughter in marriage to a
shoemaker. The flint-hearted fellow bit so deeply into the damsel's lip
that the blood trickled from the wound. Next morning the father found
her in this plight; he went up to his son-in-law, and asked him, saying:
"Lowborn wretch! what sort of teeth are these that thou shouldst chew
her lips as if they were a piece of leather? I speak not in play what I
have to say. Lay jesting aside, and take with her thy legal
enjoyment.--When once a vicious disposition has taken root in the habit,
the hand of death can only eradicate it."


XLV

A doctor of laws had a daughter preciously ugly, and she had reached the
age of womanhood; but, notwithstanding her dowry and fortune, nobody
seemed inclined to ask her in marriage:--Damask or brocade but add to
her deformity when put upon a bride void of symmetry.

In short, they were under the necessity of uniting her in the bonds of
wedlock to a blind man. They add, that soon after there arrived from
Sirandip, or Ceylon, a physician that could restore sight to the blind.
They spoke to the law doctor, saying, "Why do you not get him to
prescribe for your son-in-law?" He answered: "Because I am afraid he may
recover his sight, and repudiate my daughter; for--'the husband of an
ugly woman should be blind.'"

       *       *       *       *       *


XLVIII

They asked a wise man which was preferable, munificence or courage? He
answered, "Whoever has munificence has no need of courage." On the
tombstone of Bahram-gor was inscribed: "The hand of liberality is
stronger than the arm of power.--Hatim Tayi remains not, yet will his
exalted name live renowned for generosity to all eternity. Distribute
the tithe of thy wealth in alms, for the more the gardener prunes his
vine the more he adds to his crop of grapes."




CHAPTER III

On the Preciousness of Contentment


I

A mendicant from the west of Africa had taken his station amidst a group
of shopkeepers at Aleppo, and was saying: "O lords of plenty! had ye a
just sense of equity, and we of contentment, all manner of importunity
would cease in this world!" O contentment! do thou make me rich, for
without thee there is no wealth. The treasure of patience was the choice
of Lucman. Whoever has no patience has no wisdom.


II

There dwelt in Egypt two youths of noble birth, one of whom applied
himself to study knowledge, and the other to accumulate wealth. In
process of time that became the wisest man of his age, and this king of
Egypt. Then was the rich man casting an eye of scorn upon his
philosophic brother, and saying, "I have reached a sovereignty, and you
remain thus in a state of poverty." He replied: "O brother! I am all the
more grateful for the bounty of a Most High God, whose name was
glorified, that I have found the heritage of the prophets--namely,
wisdom; and you have got the estate of Pharaoh and Haman--that is, the
kingdom of Egypt. I am an emmet, that mankind shall tread under foot;
not a hornet, that they shall complain of my sting. How can I
sufficiently express my grateful sense of this blessing, that I possess
not the means of injuring my fellow-creatures?"


III

I heard of a dervish who was consuming in the flame of want, tacking
patch after patch upon his ragged garment, and solacing his mind with
this couplet:--"I can rest content with a dry crust of bread and a
coarse woollen frock, for the burden of my own exertion bears lighter
than laying myself under obligation to another."--Somebody observed to
him, "Why do you sit quiet, while a certain gentleman of this city is so
nobly disposed and universally benevolent, that he has girt up his loins
in the service of the religious independents, and seated himself by the
door of their hearts? Were he apprised of your condition, he would
esteem himself obliged, and be happy in the opportunity of relieving
it." He said: "Be silent; for it is better to die of want than to expose
our necessities before another, as they have remarked:--'Patching a
tattered cloak, and the consequent treasure of content, are more
commendable than petitioning the great for every new garment.'" By my
troth, I swear it were equal to the torments of hell to enter into
paradise through the interest of a neighbor.


IV

One of the Persian kings sent a skilful physician to attend Mohammed
Mustafa, on whom be salutation. He remained some years in the territory
of the Arabs; but nobody went to try his skill, or asked him for any
medicine. One day he presented himself before the blessed prince of
prophets, and complained, saying, "The king had sent me to dispense
medicine to your companions; but, till this moment, nobody has been so
good as to enable me to practise any skill that this your servant may
possess." The blessed messenger of God was pleased to answer, saying,
"It is a rule with this tribe never to eat till hard pressed by hunger,
and to discontinue their repast while they have yet an appetite." The
physician said, "This accounts for their health." Then he kissed the
earth of respect and took his leave. The physician will then begin to
inculcate temperance, or to extend the finger of indulgence, when from
silence his patient might suffer by excess, or his life be endangered by
abstinence:--of course, the skill of the physician is advice, and the
patient's regimen and diet yield the fruits of health!


V

A certain person would be making vows of abstinence and breaking them.
At last a reverend gentleman observed to him, "So I understand that you
make a practice of eating to excess; and that any restraint on your
appetite, namely, this vow, is weaker than a hair, and this
voraciousness, as you indulge it, would break an iron chain; but the day
must come when it will destroy you." A man was rearing the whelp of a
wolf; when full grown it tore its patron and master.


VI

In the annals of Ardishir Babagan it is recorded that he asked an
Arabian physician, saying, "What quantity of food ought to be eaten
daily?" He replied, "A hundred dirams' weight were sufficient." The king
said, "What strength can a man derive from so small a quantity?" The
physician replied: "_So much can support you; but in whatever you exceed
that you must support it_.--Eating is for the purpose of living, and
speaking in praise of God; but thou believest that we live only to eat."


VII

Two dervishes of Khorasan were fellow-companions on a journey. One was
so spare and moderate that he would break his fast only every other
night, and the other so robust and intemperate that he ate three meals a
day. It happened that they were taken up at the gate of a city on
suspicion of being spies, and both together put into a place, the
entrance of which was built up with mud. After a fortnight it was
discovered that they were innocent, when, on breaking open the door,
they found the strong man dead, and the weak one alive and well. They
were astonished at this circumstance. A wise man said, "The contrary of
this had been strange, for this one was a voracious eater, and not
having strength to support a want of food, perished; and that other was
abstemious, and being patient, according to his habitual practice,
survived it.--When a person is habitually temperate, and a hardship
shall cross him, he will get over it with ease; but if he has pampered
his body and lived in luxury, and shall get into straitened
circumstances, he must perish."


VIII

A certain philosopher admonished his son against eating to an excess,
because repletion made a man sick. The boy answered, "O father, hunger
will kill. Have you not heard what the wits have remarked, To die of a
surfeit were better than to bear with a craving appetite?" The father
said, "Study moderation, for the Most High God has told us in the
Koran:--'_Eat ye and drink ye, but not to an excess_:'--eat not so
voraciously that the food shall be regorged from thy mouth, nor so
abstemiously that from depletion life shall desert thee:--though food be
the means of preserving breath in the body. Yet, if taken to excess, it
will prove noxious. If conserve of roses be frequently indulged in it
will cause a surfeit, whereas a crust of bread, eaten after a long
interval, will relish like conserve of roses."


XI

In a battle with the Tartars, a gallant young man was grievously
wounded. Somebody said to him, "A certain merchant has a stock of the
mummy antidote; if you would ask him, he might perhaps accommodate you
with a portion of it." They say that merchant was so notorious for his
stinginess, that--"If, in the place of his loaf of bread, the orb of the
sun had been in his wallet, nobody would have seen daylight in the world
till the day of judgment."

The spirited youth replied: "Were I to ask him for this antidote, he
might give it, or he might not; and if he did it might cure me, or it
might not; at any rate, to ask such a man were itself a deadly poison!"
Whatever thou wouldst ask of the mean, in obligation, might add to the
body, but would take from the soul.--And philosophers have observed,
that were the water of immortality, for example, to be sold at the
price of the reputation, a wise man would not buy it, for an honorable
death is preferable to a life of infamy.--Wert thou to eat colocynth
from the hand of the kind-hearted, it would relish better than a
sweetmeat from that of the crabbed.


XII

One of the learned had a large family and small means. He stated his
case to a great man, who entertained a favorable opinion of his
character. This one turned away from his solicitation, and viewed this
prostitution of begging as discreditable with a gentleman of education.
If soured by misfortune, present not thyself before a dear friend, for
thou may'st also imbitter his pleasure. When thou bringest forward a
distress, do it with a cheerful and smiling face, for an openness of
countenance can never retard business.--They have related that he rose a
little in the pension, but sunk much in the estimation of the great man.
After some days, when he perceived this falling off in his affection, he
said:--"_Miserable is that supply of food which thou obtainest in the
hour of need; the pot is put to boil, but my reputation is bubbled into
vapor_.--He added to my means of subsistence, but took from my
reputation; absolute starving were better than the disgrace of begging."


XIII

A dervish had a pressing call for money. Somebody told him a certain
person is inconceivably rich; were he made aware of your want, he would
somehow manage to accommodate it. He said, "I do not know him." The
other answered, "I will introduce you;" and having taken his hand, he
brought him to that person's dwelling. The dervish beheld a man with a
hanging lip, and sitting in sullen discontent. He said nothing, and
returned home. His friend asked, "What have you done?" He replied, "His
gift I gave in exchange for his look:--Lay not thy words before a man
with a sour face, otherwise thou may'st be ruffled by his ill-nature. If
thou tellest the sorrows of thy heart let it be to him in whose
countenance thou may'st be assured of prompt consolation."

       *       *       *       *       *


XV

They asked Hatim Tayi: "Have you ever met, or heard of, a person of a
more independent spirit than yourself?" He answered: "Yes, one day I had
made a sacrifice of forty camels, and invited the chief of every Arab
tribe to a feast. Then I repaired to the border of the desert, where I
met a wood-cutter, who had tied up his fagot to carry it into the city.
I said, Why do you not go to the feast of Hatim, where a crowd have
assembled round his carpet? He replied:--'Whoever can eat the bread of
his own industry will not lay himself under obligation to Hatim
Tayi.'--And in him I met my superior in spirit and independence."


XVI

The Prophet Moses, on whom be peace, saw a dervish who had buried his
body, in his want of clothes to cover it, in the sand. He said: "O
Moses, put up a prayer, that the Most High God would bestow a
subsistence upon me, for I am perishing in distress." The blessed Moses
prayed accordingly, that God on high would succor him.

Some days afterwards, as he was returning from a conference with God on
Mount Sinai, he met that dervish in the hands of justice, and a mob
following him. He asked: "What has befallen this man?" They answered:
"He had drunk wine and got into a quarrel, and having killed somebody,
they are now going to exact retaliation."--The God who set forth the
seven climates of this world assigned to every creature its appropriate
lot. Had that wretched cat been gifted with wings, she would not have
left one sparrow's egg on the earth. It might happen that were a weak
man to get the ability, he would rise and domineer over his weak
brethren.

The blessed Moses acknowledged the wisdom of the Creator of the
universe, and, confessing his own presumption, repeated this verse of
the Koran:--"_Were God to spread abroad his stores of subsistence to
servants, verily they would rebel all over the earth._" What happened, O
vain man! that thou didst precipitate thyself into destruction? Would
that the ant might not have the means of flying!--A mean person, when
he has got rank and wealth, will bring a storm of blows upon his head.
Was not this at last the adage of a philosopher, 'That ant is best
disposed of that has no wings.'--The father is a man of much sweetness
of disposition, but the son is full of heat and passions:--That Being,
God, who would not make thee rich, must have known thy good better than
thou couldst thyself know it.


XVII

I saw an Arab, who was standing amidst a circle of jewellers at Busrah,
and saying: "On one occasion I had missed my way in the desert, and
having no road-provision left, I had given myself up for lost, when all
at once I found a bag of pearls. Never shall I forget that relish and
delight, so long as I mistook them for parched wheat; nor that
bitterness and disappointment, when I discovered that they were real
pearls." In the mouth of the thirsty traveller, amidst parched deserts
and moving sands, pearl, or mother-of-pearl, were equally distasteful.
To a man without provision, and knocked up in the desert, a piece of
stone or of gold, in his scrip, is all one.


XVIII

An Arab, suffering under all the extremity of thirst in the desert, was
saying:--"_Would to God that yet, before I perish, I could but for one
day gratify my wish: that a stream of water might dash against my knees,
and I could fill my leathern flask or stomach with it_."

In like manner a traveller had got bewildered in the great desert, and
had neither provisions nor strength left, yet a few dirams remained with
him in his scrip. He kept wandering about, but could not find the path,
and sunk under his fatigue. A party of travellers arrived where his body
lay; they saw the dirams spread before him, and these verses written in
the sand:--"Were he possessed of all the gold of Jafier (a famous gold
refiner), a man without food could not satisfy his appetite. To a
wretched mendicant, parched in the desert, a boiled turnip would relish
better than an ingot of virgin silver."


XIX

I had never complained of the vicissitudes of fortune, nor murmured at
the ordinances of heaven, excepting on one occasion, that my feet were
bare, and I had not wherewithal to shoe them. In this desponding state I
entered the metropolitan mosque at Cufah, and there I beheld a man that
had no feet. I offered up praise and thanksgiving for God's goodness to
myself, and submitted with patience to my want of shoes.--In the eye of
one satiated with meat a roast fowl is less esteemed at his table than a
salad; but to him who is stinted of food a boiled turnip will relish
like a roast fowl.


XX

A king, attended by a select retinue, had, on a sporting excursion
during the winter, got at a distance from any of his hunting seats, and
the evening was closing fast, when they espied from afar a peasant's
cottage. The king said: "Let us repair thither for the night, that we
may shelter ourselves from the inclemency of the weather." One of the
courtiers replied: "It would not become the dignity of the sovereign to
take refuge in the cottage of a low peasant; we can pitch a tent here
and kindle a fire." The peasant saw what was passing; he came forward
with what refreshments he had at hand, and, laying them before the king,
kissed the earth of subserviency, and said: "The lofty dignity of the
king would not be lowered by this condescension; but these gentlemen did
not choose that the condition of a peasant should be exalted." The king
was pleased with this speech; and they passed the night at his cottage.
In the morning he bestowed an honorary dress and handsome largess upon
him. I have heard that the peasant was resting his hand for some paces
upon the king's stirrup, and saying: "The state and pomp of the
sovereign suffered no degradation by his condescension in becoming a
guest at the cottage of a peasant; but the corner of the peasant's cap
rose to a level with the sun when the shadow of such a monarch as thou
art fell upon his head."


XXI

They tell a story of an importunate mendicant who had amassed much
riches. A certain king said: "It seems that you possess immense wealth,
and I have a business of some consequence in hand. If you will assist me
with a little of it, by way of a loan, when the public revenue is
realized I will repay it and thank you to the bargain." He replied: "O
sire, it would ill become the sublime majesty of the sovereign of the
universe to soil the hand of lofty enterprise with the property of such
a mendicant as I am, which I have scraped together grain by grain." He
said: "There is no occasion to vex yourself, for I mean it for the
Tartars, as impurities are suiting for the impure:--_They said, 'The
compost of a dunghill is unclean.' We replied, 'That with it we will
fill up the chinks of a necessary_.'--If the water of a Christian's well
is defiled, and we wash a Jew's corpse in it, there is no sin." I have
heard that he disobeyed the royal command, questioned its justice, and
resisted it with insolence. The king ordered that the exchequer
stipulations should be put in force with rigidness and violence. When a
business cannot be settled with fair words, we must of necessity make
use of foul. When a man will not contribute of his own free will, if
another enforces him he meets his desert.


XXII

I knew a merchant who had a hundred and fifty camels of burden and forty
bondsmen and servants in his train. One night he entertained me at his
lodgings in the island of Keish, in the Persian Gulf, and continued for
the whole night talking idly, and saying: "Such a store of goods I have
in Turkestan, and such an assortment of merchandise in Hindustan; this
is the mortgage-deed of a certain estate, and this the security-bond of
a certain individual's concern." Then he would say: "I have a mind to
visit Alexandria, the air of which is salubrious; but that cannot be,
for the Mediterranean Sea is boisterous. O Sa'di! I have one more
journey in view, and, that once accomplished, I will pass my remaining
life in retirement and leave off trade." I asked: "What journey is
that?" He replied: "I will carry the sulphur of Persia to Chin, where,
I have heard, it will fetch a high price; thence I will take China
porcelain to Greece; the brocade of Greece or Venice I will carry to
India; and Indian steel I will bring to Aleppo; the glassware of Aleppo
I will take to Yamin; and with the bardimani, or striped stuffs, of
Yamin I will return to Persia. After that I will give up foreign
commerce and settle myself in a warehouse." He went on in this
melancholy strain till he was quite exhausted with speaking. He said: "O
Sa'di! do you too relate what you have seen and heard." I
replied:--"Hast thou not heard that in the desert of Ghor as the body of
a chief merchant fell exhausted from his camel, he said, 'Either
contentment or the dust of the grave will fill the stingy eye of the
worldly-minded.'"

       *       *       *       *       *


XXIV

A weak fisherman got a strong fish into his net, but not having the
power of mastering it, the fish got the better of him, and, dragging the
net from his hand, escaped:--A bondsman went that he might take water
from the brook; the brook came to rise and carried off the bondsman. On
most occasions the net would bring out the fish; on this occasion the
fish escaped, and took away the net. The other fishermen expressed their
vexation, and reproached him, saying, "Such a fish came into your net,
and you were not able to master it." He replied: "Alas! my brethren,
what could be done? It was not my day of fortune, and the fish had in
this way another day left it. And they have said: 'Unless it be his lot,
the fisherman cannot catch a fish in the Tigris; and, except it be its
fate, the fish will not die on the dry shore.'"


XXV

A person without hands or feet killed a milleped. A good and holy man
passed by him at the time, and said: "Glory be to God! notwithstanding
the thousand feet he had when his destiny overtook him, he was unable to
escape from one destitute of hand or foot."--When the life-plundering
foe comes up behind, fate arrests the speed of the swift-going warrior.
At the moment when the enemy might approach step by step it were useless
to bend the kayani, or Parthian bow.


XXVI

I met a fat blockhead decked in rich apparel, and mounted on an Arab
horse, with a turban of fine Egyptian linen on his head. A person said:
"O Sa'di, how comes it that you see these garments of the learned on
this ignorant beast?" I replied: "It is a vile epistle which has been
written in golden letters:--'_Verily this ass, with the resemblance of a
man, has the carcase of a calf, and the voice or bleating of a
calf_.'--Thou canst not say that this brute appears like a man, unless
in his garments, turban, and outward form. Examine into all the ways and
means of his existence, and thou shalt find nothing lawful but the
shedding of his blood:--though a man of noble birth be reduced to
poverty, imagine not that his lofty dignity can be lowered; and though
he may secure his silver threshold with a hasp of gold, conclude not
that a Jew can be thereby ennobled."


XXVII

A thief said to a mendicant: "Are you not ashamed when you hold forth
your hand to every mean fellow for a barleycorn of silver?" He replied:
"It is better to hold forth the hand for one grain of silver than to
have it cut off for one and a half dang."

       *       *       *       *       *


XXIX

I saw a dervish who had withdrawn into a cave, shut the door of
communication between the world and himself, and with his lofty and
independent eye viewed emperors and kings without awe or
reverence:--Whoever opens to himself the door of mendicity, must
continue a beggar till the day of his death. Put covetousness aside, and
be independent as a prince; the neck of contentment can raise its head
erect.

One of the sovereigns of those parts sent a message to him, stating: "So
far I can rely on the generous disposition of his reverence, that he
will one day favor me by partaking of my bread and salt, by becoming my
guest." The shaikh, or holy man, consented; for the acceptance of such
an invitation accorded with the sunnat, or law and tradition of the
prophet. Next day the king went to apologize for the trouble he had
caused him. The abid rose from his place, took the king in his arms,
showed him much kindness, and was full of his compliments. After he was
gone, one of the shaikh's companions asked him, saying: "Was not such
condescending kindness as you this day showed the king contrary to what
is usual; what does this mean?" He answered: "Have you not heard what
they have said:--'It is proper to stand up and administer to him whom
thou hast seated on thy carpet, or made thy guest.'"

He could so manage that, during his whole life, his ear should not
indulge in the music of the tabor, cymbal, and pipe. He could restrain
his eyes from enjoying the garden, and gratify his sense of smell
without the rose or narcissus. Though he had not a pillow stuffed with
down, he could compose himself to rest with a stone under his head;
though he had no heart-solacer as the partner of his bed, he could hug
himself to sleep with his arms across his breast. If he could not ride
an ambling nag, he was content to take his walk on foot; only this
grumbling and vile belly he could not keep under, without stuffing it
with food.




CHAPTER IV

On the Benefit of Being Silent


I

I spoke to one of my friends, saying: "A prudent restraint on my words
is on that account advisable, because in conversation there on most
occasions occur good and bad; and the eyes of rivals only note what is
bad." He replied: "O brother! that is our best rival who does not, or
will not, see our good!--_The malignant brotherhood pass not by the
virtuous man without imputing to him what is infamous_:--To the eye of
enmity, virtue appears the ugliest blemish; it is a rose, O Sa'di! which
to the eyes of our rivals seems a thorn. The world-illuminating
brilliancy of the fountain of the sun, in like manner, appears dim to
the eye of the purblind mole."


II

A merchant happened to lose a thousand dinars. He said to his son: "It
will be prudent not to mention this loss to anybody." The son answered:
"O father, it is your orders, and I shall not mention it; but
communicate the benefit so far, as what the policy may be in keeping it
a secret." He said: "That I may not suffer two evils: one, the loss of
my money; another, the reproach of my neighbor;--Impart not thy
grievances to rivals, for they are glad at heart, while praying, _God
preserve us_; or _there is neither strength nor power, unless it be from
God!_"


III

A sensible youth made vast progress in the arts and sciences, and was of
a docile disposition; but however much he frequented the societies of
the learned, they never could get him to utter a word. On one occasion
his father said: "O my son, why do not you also say what you know on
this subject?" He replied: "I am afraid lest they question me upon what
I know not, and put me to shame:--Hast thou not heard of a Sufi who was
hammering some nails into the sole of his sandal. An officer of cavalry
took him by the sleeve, saying, 'Come along, and shoe my horse.'--So
long as thou art silent and quiet, nobody will meddle with thy business;
but once thou divulgest it, be ready with thy proofs."


IV

A man, respectable for his learning, got into a discussion with an
atheist; but, failing to convince him, he threw down his shield and
fled. A person asked him, "With all your wisdom and address, learning
and science, how came you not to controvert an infidel?" He replied: "My
learning is the Koran, and the traditions and sayings of our holy
fathers; but he puts no faith in the articles of our belief, and what
good could it do to listen to his blasphemy?" To him whom thou canst not
convince by revelation or tradition, the best answer is that thou shalt
not answer him.

       *       *       *       *       *


VI

They have esteemed Sahban Wabil as unrivalled in eloquence, insomuch
that he could speak for a year before an assembly, and would not use the
same word twice; or should he chance to repeat it, he would give it a
different signification; and this is one of the special accomplishments
of a courtier:--Though a speech be captivating and sweet, worthy of
belief, and meriting applause, yet what thou hast once delivered thou
must not repeat, for if they eat a sweetmeat once they find that enough.


VII

I overheard a sage, who was remarking: "Never has anybody acknowledged
his own ignorance, excepting that person who, while another may be
talking, and has not finished what he has to say, will begin
speaking:--A speech, O wiseacre! has a beginning and an end; bring not
one speech into the middle of another. A man of judgment, discretion,
and prudence, delivers not his speech till he find an interval of
silence."


VIII

Some of the courtiers of Sultan Mahmud asked Husan Maimandi, saying:
"What did the king whisper to you to-day on a certain state affair?" He
said: "You are also acquainted with it." They replied: "You are the
prime minister; what the king tells you, he does not think proper to
communicate to such as we are." He replied: "He communicates with me in
the confidence that I will not divulge to anybody; then why do you ask
me?" A man of sense blabs not, whatever he may come to know; he should
not make his own head the forfeit of the king's secret.


IX

I was hesitating about the purchase of a dwelling-house. A Jew said: "I
am an old housekeeper in this street: ask the character of this house
from me and buy it, for it has no fault." I replied: "True! only that
you are its neighbor:--Any such house as has thee for its neighbor could
scarce be worth ten dirams of silver; yet it should behoove us to hope
that after thy death it may fetch a thousand."


X

A certain poet presented himself before the chief of a gang of robbers,
and recited a casidah, or elegy, in his praise. He ordered that they
should strip off his clothes, and thrust him from the village. The naked
wretch was going away shivering in the cold, and the village dogs were
barking at his heels. He stooped to pick up a stone, in order to shy at
the dogs, but found the earth frost-bound, and was disappointed. He
exclaimed: "What rogues these villagers are, for they let loose their
dogs, and tie up their stones!" The chief robber saw and overheard him
from a window. He smiled at his wit, and, calling him near said: "O
learned sir! ask me for a boon." He replied, "I ask for my own garments,
if you will vouchsafe to give them:--_I shall have enough of boons in
your suffering me to depart_.--Mankind expects charity from others; I
expect no charity from thee, only do me no injury." The chief robber
felt compassion for him. He ordered his clothes to be restored, and
added to them a robe of fur and sum of money.

       *       *       *       *       *


XII

A preacher of a harsh tone of voice fancied himself a fine-spoken man,
and would hold forth at the mosque to a very idle purpose. You might say
that the croaking of the raven of the desert was the burden of his
chant, and this text of the Koran expressive of his manner:--_The most
abominable of noises is the braying of an ass:--"Whenever this ass of a
preacher sets up a braying, his voice will make the city of Istakhar, or
Persepolis, shake to its base_."

In reverence of his rank his townsmen indulged this defect, and would
not distress him by remarking on it, till another preacher of those
parts, actuated by a private pique, came on one occasion to tantalize
him, and said, "I have seen you in a dream; may it prove fortunate!" He
asked: "What have you seen?" He replied: "So it seemed in my vision that
your voice had become harmonious, and mankind were charmed with your
melodious cadences." For a while the preacher bowed his head in thought,
then raised it, and said: "What a fortunate vision is it that you had,
that has made me sensible of my weakness! I am now aware that I have an
unpleasant voice, and that the people are distressed at my delivery. I
have vowed that I will henceforth preach only in a soft tone of voice."
I am distressed with the society of friends who extol my vices into
virtues, my blemishes they view as excellences and perfections, my
thorns they regard as roses and jasmines. Where is that rude and bold
rival who will expose all my deformities?


XIII

At a mosque in the city of Sanjar, the capital of Khorasan, a person was
volunteering to chant forth the call to prayers with so discordant a
note as to drive all that heard him away in disgust. The intendant of
that mosque was a just and well-disposed gentleman, who was averse to
giving offence to anybody. He said: "O generous youth, there belong to
this mosque some mowuzzins, or criers, of long standing, to each of
whom I allow a monthly stipend of five dinars; now I will give you ten
to go elsewhere." To this he agreed, and took himself off. After a while
he came to the nobleman, and said: "O my lord! you did me an injury when
for ten dinars you prevailed upon me to quit this station, for where I
went they offered me twenty to remove to another place, but I would not
consent." The nobleman smiled and replied: "Take heed, and do not accept
them, for they may be content to give you fifty!--No person can with a
mattock scrape off the clay from the face of a hard rock in so grating a
manner as thy harsh voice is harrowing up my soul."


XIV

A person with a harsh voice was reciting the Koran in a loud tone. A
good and holy man went up to him, and asked: "What is your monthly
stipend?" He answered, "Nothing." "Then," added he, "why give yourself
so much trouble?" He said: "I am reading for the sake of God." The good
and holy man replied: "For God's sake do not read:--for if thou chantest
the Koran after this manner, thou must cast a shade over the glory of
Islamism or Mussulman orthodoxy."




CHAPTER V

On Love and Youth


I

They asked Husan Maimandi: "How comes it that Sultan Mahmud, who has so
many handsome bondswomen, each of whom is the wonder of the world and
most select of the age, entertains not such fondness and affection for
any of them as he does for Ayaz, who can boast of no superiority of
charms?" He replied: "Whatever makes an impression on the heart seems
lovely in the eye. That person of whom the sultan makes choice must be
altogether good, though a compendium of vice; but where he is estranged
from the favor of the king none of the household will think of courting
him." Were a person to view it with a fastidious eye, the form of a
Joseph might seem a deformity; but let him look with desire on a demon,
and he will appear like an angel and cherub.

       *       *       *       *       *


III

I saw a parsa, or holy man, so enamoured of a lovely person that he had
neither fortitude to bear with, nor resolution to declare, his passion:
and, however much he was the object of remark and censure, he would not
forego this infatuation, and was saying:--"I quit not my hold on the
skirt of thy garment, though thou may'st verily smite me with a sharp
sword. Besides thee I have neither asylum nor defence; if I am to flee,
I must take refuge with thee."

On one occasion I reproached him, and said: "What is become of your
precious reason, that a vile passion should thus master you?" He made a
short pause, and replied:--"Wherever the king of love came, he left no
room for the strong arm of chastity. How can that wretch live undefiled
who has fallen in a quagmire up to the neck?"


IV

A certain person had lost his heart and abandoned himself to despair.
The object of his desire was not such a dainty that he could gratify his
palate with it, or a bird that he could lure it into his net, but a
frightful precipice and overwhelming whirlpool:--When thy gold attracts
not the charmer's eye, dust or gold is of equal value with thee.

His friends admonished him, saying: "Put aside this vain fancy, for
multitudes are in the durance and chains of this same passion which you
are cherishing." He sighed aloud, and replied: "Say to my friends, Do
not admonish me, for my eye is fixed on the wish of her. With strength
of wrist and power of shoulders warriors overwhelm their antagonists and
charmers their lovers." Nor can it be consistent with the condition of
love that any thought of life should divert the heart from affection for
its mistress:--Thou, who art the slave of thine own precious self,
playest false in the affairs of love. If thou canst not make good a
passage to thy mistress, it is the duty of a lover to perish in the
attempt.--I persist when policy is no longer left me, though the enemy
may cover me all over with the wounds of swords and arrows. If I can
reach her I will seize her sleeve, or at all events proceed and die at
her threshold.

His kindred, whose business it was to watch over his concerns, and to
pity his misfortunes, gave him advice, and put upon him restraints, but
all to no good purpose:--The physician is, alas! prescribing
bitter-aloes, and his depraved appetite is craving sweetmeats!--Heardest
thou what a charmer was saying in a whisper to one who had lost his
heart to her: "So long as thou maintainest thine own dignity, of what
value can my dignity appear in thine eye?"

They informed the princess who was the object of his infatuation,
saying: "A youth of an amiable disposition and sweet flow of tongue is
frequent in his attendance at the top of this plain; and we hear him
delivering brilliant speeches and wonderful sallies of wit; it would
seem that he has a mystery in his head and a flame in his heart, for he
appears to be distractedly in love." The princess was aware that she had
become the object of his attachment, and that this whirlwind of calamity
was raised by himself, and spurred her horse toward him. Now that the
youth saw that it was the princess' intention to approach him, he wept,
and said:--"That personage who inflicted upon me a mortal wound again
presented herself before me; perhaps she took compassion upon her own
victim." However, kindly she spoke, and asked, saying: "Who are you, and
whence come you? what is your name, and what your calling?" the youth
was so entirely overwhelmed in the ocean of love and passion that he
absolutely could not utter a word:--"Couldst thou in fact repeat the
seven Saba, or whole Koran by heart, if distracted with love, thou
wouldst forget the alphabet":--the princess continued: "Why do you not
answer me? for I too am one of the sect of dervishes, nay, I am their
most devoted slave." On the strength of this sympathizing encouragement
of his beloved, the youth raised his head amidst the buffeting waves of
tempestuous passion, and answered:--"It is strange that with thee
present I should remain in existence; that after thou camest to talk, I
should have speech left me."--This he said, and, uttering a loud groan,
surrendered his soul up to God:--No wonder if he died by the door of his
beloved's tent; the wonder was, if alive, how he could have brought his
life back in safety.


V

A boy at school possessed much loveliness of person and sweetness of
conversation; and the master, from the frailty of human nature, was
enamoured of his blooming skin. Like his other scholars, he would not
admonish and correct him, but when he found him in a corner he would
whisper in his ear:--"I am not, O celestial creature! so occupied with
thee, that I am harboring in my mind a thought of myself. Were I to
perceive an arrow coming right into it, I could not shut my eye from
contemplating thee."

On one occasion the boy said: "In like manner, as you inspect my duties,
also animadvert on my tendency to vice, in order that if you discern any
immorality in my behavior, which has met my own approbation, you can
warn me against it, that I may correct it." He replied: "O my child!
propose this task to somebody else; for the light in which I view you
reflects nothing but virtue." That malignant eye, let it be plucked out
in whose sight his virtue can seem vice. Hadst thou but one perfection
and seventy faults, the lover could discern only that one perfection.

       *       *       *       *       *


VII

A person who had not seen his friend for a length of time, said to him:
"Where were you? for I have been very solicitous about you." He replied,
"It is better to be sought after than loathed." Thou hast come late, O
intoxicating idol! I shall not in a hurry quit my hold on thy
skirt:--that mistress whom they see but seldom is at last more desired
than she is whom they are cloyed with seeing.

The charmer that can bring companions along with her has come to
quarrel; for she cannot be void of jealousy and discontent:--_Whenever
thou contest to visit me attended with comrades or rivals, though thou
comest in peace yet thy object is hostile_:--for one single moment that
my mistress associated with a rival, it went well-nigh to slay me with
jealousy. Smiling, she replied: "O Sa'di! I am the torch of the
assembly; what is it to me if the moth consume itself?"


VIII

In former times, I recollect, a friend and I were associating together
like two kernels within one almond shell. I happened unexpectedly to go
on a journey. After some time, when I was returned, he began to chide
me, saying: "During this long interval you never sent me a messenger." I
replied: "It vexed me to think that the eyes of a courier should be
enlightened by your countenance, whilst I was debarred that
happiness:--Tell my old charmer not to impose a vow upon me with her
tongue; for I would not repent, were she to attempt it with a sword.
Envy stings me to the quick, lest another should be satiated with
beholding thee, till I recollect myself, and say: Nobody can have a
satiety of that!"


IX

I saw a learned gentleman the captive of attachment for a certain
person, and the victim of his reproach; and he would suffer much
violence, and bear it with great patience. On one occasion I said, by
way of admonition: "I know that in your attachment for this person you
have no bad object, and that this friendship rests not on any criminal
design; yet, under this interpretation, it accords not with the dignity
of the learned to expose yourself to calumny, and put up with the
rudeness of the rabble." He replied: "O my friend, withdraw the hand of
reproach from the skirt of my fatality, for I have frequently reflected
on this advice which you offer me, and find it easier to suffer
contumely on his account than to forego his company; and philosophers
have said: 'It is less arduous to persist in the labor of courting than
to restrain the eye from contemplating a beloved object':--Whoever
devotes his heart to a soul deluder puts his beard or reputation into
the hands of another. That person, without whom thou canst not exist, if
he do thee a violence, thou must bear with it. The antelope, that is led
by a string, cannot bound from this side to that. One day I asked a
compact of my mistress; how often have I since that day craved her
forgiveness! A lover exacts not terms of his charmer; I relinquished my
heart to whatever she desired me, whether to call me up to her with
kindness, or drive me from her with harshness she knows best, or it is
her pleasure."


X

In my early youth such an event (as you know) will come to pass. I held
a mystery and intercourse with a young person, because he had a pipe of
exquisite melody, and a form silver bright as the full moon:--"He is
sipping the fountain of immortality, who may taste the down of his
cheek; and he is eating a sweetmeat, who can fancy the sugar of his
lips."

It happened that something in his behavior having displeased me, I
withdrew the skirt of communication, and removed the seal of my
affection from him, and said: "Go, and take what course best suits thee;
thou regardest not my counsel, follow thine own." I overheard him as he
was going, and saying:--"If the bat does not relish the company of the
sun, the all-current brilliancy of that luminary can suffer no
diminution." He so expressed himself and departed, and his vagabond
condition much distressed me:--_the opportunity of enjoyment was lost,
and a man is insensible to the relish of prosperity till he_ _has
tasted adversity_:--return and slay me, for to die before thy face were
far more pleasant than to survive in thy absence.

But, thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty, he did not return till
after some interval, when that melodious pipe of David was cracked, and
that handsome form of Joseph in its wane; when that apple his chin was
overgrown with hair, like a quince, and the all-current lustre of his
charms tarnished. He expected me to fold him in my arms; but I took
myself aside and said: "When the down of loveliness flourished on thy
cheek, thou drovest the lord of thy attractions from thy sight; now thou
hast come to court his peace when thy face is thick set with fathahs and
zammahs, or the bristles of a beard:--The verdant foliage of thy spring
is turned yellow; place not thy kettle on my grate, for its fire is
cooled. How long wilt thou display this pomp and vanity; hopest thou to
regain thy former dominion? Make thy court to such as desire thee, sport
thy airs on such as will hire thee:--The verdure of the garden, they
have told us, is charming; that person (Sa'di) knows it who is relating
that story; or, in other words, that the fresh-shooting down on their
charmers' cheeks is what the hearts of their admirers chiefly
covet:--Thy garden is like a bed of chives: the more thou croppest it,
the more it will shoot:--Last year thou didst depart smooth as an
antelope, to-day thou art returned bearded like a pard. Sa'di admires
the fresh-shooting down, not when each hair is stiff as a
packing-needle:--Whether thou hast patience with thy beard, or weed it
from thy face, this happy season of youth must come to a conclusion. Had
I the same command of life as thou hast of beard, it should not escape
me till doomsday." I asked him and said: "What has become of the beauty
of thy countenance, that a beard has sprung up round the orb of the
moon?" He answered: "I know not what has befallen my face, unless it has
put on black to mourn its departed charms."

       *       *       *       *       *


XII

They shut up a parrot in the same cage with a crow. The parrot was
affronted at his ugly look, and said: "What an odious visage is this, a
hideous figure; what an accursed appearance, and ungracious
demeanor!--_Would to God, O raven of the desert! we were wide apart
as the east is from the west_:--The serenity of his peaceful day would
change into the gloom of night, who on issuing forth in the morning
might cross thy aspect. An ill-conditioned wretch like thyself should be
thy companion; but where could we find such another in the world?"

But what is more strange, the crow was also out of all patience, and
vexed to the soul at the society of the parrot. Bewailing his
misfortune, he was railing at the revolutions of the skies; and,
wringing the hands of chagrin, was lamenting his condition, and saying:
"What an unpropitious fate is this; what ill-luck, and untoward fortune!
Could they any way suit the dignity of me, who would in my day strut
with my fellow-crows along the wall of a garden:--It were durance
sufficient for a good and holy man that he should be made the companion
of the wicked:--What sin have I committed that my stars in retribution
of it have linked me in the chain of companionship, and immured me in
the dungeon of calamity, with a conceited blockhead, and
good-for-nothing babbler:--Nobody will approach the foot of a wall on
which they have painted thy portrait; wert thou to get a residence in
paradise, others would go in preference to hell."

I have introduced this parable to show that however much learned men
despise the ignorant, these are a hundredfold more scornful of the
learned:--A zahid, or holy man, fell in company with some wandering
minstrels. One of them, a charmer of Balkh, said to him: "If thou art
displeased with us, do not look sour, for thou art already sufficiently
offensive.--An assemblage is formed of roses and tulips, and thou art
stuck up amidst them like a withered stalk; like an opposing storm, and
a chilling winter blast; like a ball of snow, or lump of ice."


XIII

I had an associate, who was for years the companion of my travels,
partook of the same bread and salt, and enjoyed the many rights of a
confirmed friendship. At last, on some trifling advantage, he gave me
cause of umbrage, and our intimacy ceased. And notwithstanding all this,
there was a hankering of good-will on both sides; in consequence of
which I heard that he was one day reciting in a certain assembly these
two couplets of my writings:--"When my idol, or mistress, is
approaching me with her tantalizing smiles, she is sprinkling more salt
upon my smarting sores. How fortunate were the tips of her ringlets to
come into my hand, like the sleeve of the generous in the hands of
dervishes." This society of his friends bore testimony, and gave
applause, not to the beauty of this sentiment, but to the liberality of
his own disposition in quoting it; while he had himself been extravagant
in his encomiums, regretted the demise of our former attachment, and
confessed how much he was to blame. I was made aware that he too was
desirous of a reconciliation; and, having sent him these couplets, made
my peace:--"Was there not a treaty of good faith between us, and didst
not thou commence hostilities, and violate the compact? I relinquished
all manner of society, and plighted my heart to thee; for I did not
suspect that thou wouldst have so readily changed. If it still be thy
wish to renew our peace, return, and be more dear to me than ever."


XIV

A man had a beautiful wife, who died; but the mother, a decrepit old
dotard, remained a fixture in his house, because of the dowry. He was
teased to death by her company; but, from the circumstance of the dower,
he had no remedy. In the meantime some of his friends having come to
comfort him, one of them asked: "How is it with you, since the loss of
that dear friend?" He answered: "The absence of my wife is not so
intolerable as the presence of her mother:--They plucked the rose, and
left me the thorn; they plundered the treasure, and let the snake
remain. To have our eye pierced with a spear were more tolerable than to
see the face of an enemy. It were better to break with a thousand
friends than to put up with one rival."


XV

In my youth I recollect I was passing through a street, and caught a
glimpse of a moon-like charmer during the dog-days, when their heat was
drying up the moisture of the mouth, and the samurn, or desert hot-wind,
melting the marrow of the bones. From the weakness of human nature I was
unable to withstand the darting rays of a noon-tide sun, and took
refuge under the shadow of a wall, hopeful that somebody would relieve
me from the oppressive heat of summer, and quench the fire of my thirst
with a draught of water. All at once I beheld a luminary in the shadowed
portico of a mansion, so splendid an object that the tongue of eloquence
falls short in summing up its loveliness; such as the day dawning upon a
dark night, or the fountain of immortality issuing from chaos. She held
in her hand a goblet of snow-cooled water, into which she dropped some
sugar, and tempered it with spirit of wine; but I know not whether she
scented it with attar, or sprinkled it with a few blossoms from her own
rosy cheek. In short, I received the beverage from her idol-fair hand;
and, having drunk it off, found myself restored to a new life. "_Such is
not my parching thirst that it is to be quenched with the limpid element
of water, were I to swallow it in oceans_:--Joy to that happy aspect
whose eye can every morning contemplate such a countenance as thine. A
person intoxicated with wine lies giddy and awake half the night; but if
intoxicated with the cup-bearer (God), the day of judgment must be his
dawn or morning."


XVI

In the year that Sultan Mohammed Khowarazm-Shah had for some political
reason chosen to make peace with the king of Khota, I entered the
metropolitan mosque at Kashghar, and met a youth incomparably lovely,
and exquisitely handsome; such as they have mentioned in resemblance of
him:--"Thy master instructed thee in every bold and captivating grace;
he taught thee coquetry and confidence, tyranny and violence." I have
seen no mortal with such a form and temper, stateliness and manner;
perhaps he learned these fascinating ways from an angel.

He held the introduction of the Zamakhshari Arabic grammar in his hand,
and was repeating:--"Zaraba Zaidun Amranwa--Zaid beat Amru and is the
assailant of Amru." I said: "O my son! the Khowarazm and Khatayi
sovereigns have made peace, and does war thus subsist between Zaid and
Amru?" He smiled, and asked me the place of my nativity. I answered:
"The territory of Shiraz." He said: "Do you recollect any of Sa'di's
compositions?" I replied: "_I am enamoured with the reader of the
syntax, who, taking offence, assails me in like manner as Zaid does
Amru. And Zaid, when read Zaidin, cannot raise his head; and how canst
thou give a zammah to a word accented with a kasrah_?"

He reflected a little within himself, and said: "In these parts we have
much of Sa'di's compositions in the Persian language; if you will speak
in that dialect we shall more readily comprehend you, for _you should
address mankind according to their capacities_."

I replied: "Whilst thy passion was that of studying grammar, all trace
of reason was erased from our hearts. Yes! the lover's heart is fallen a
prey to thy snare: we are occupied about thee, and thou art taken up
with Amru and Zaid."

On the morrow, which had been fixed on as the period of our stay, some
of my fellow-travellers had perhaps told him such a one is Sa'di; for I
saw that he came running up, and expressed his affection and regret,
saying: "Why did you not during all this time tell us that a certain
person is Sa'di, that I might have shown my gratitude by offering my
service to your reverence." I answered: "In thy presence I cannot even
say that I am I!"--He said: "How good it were if you would tarry here
for a few days, that we might devote ourselves to your service." I
replied: "That cannot be, as this adventure will explain to you:--In the
hilly region I saw a great and holy man, who was content in living
retired from the world in a cavern. I said: 'Why dost thou not come into
the city, that thy heart might be relieved from a load of servitude?' He
replied: 'In it there dwell some wonderful and angel-faced charmers, and
where the path is miry, elephants may find it slippery.'--Having
delivered this speech, we kissed each other's head and face, and took
our leaves:--What profits it to kiss our mistress's cheek, and with the
same breath to bid her adieu. Thou mightest say that the apple had taken
leave of its friends by having this cheek red and that cheek
yellow:--_Were I not to die of grief on that day I say farewell, thou
wouldst charge me with being insincere in my attachments_."


XVII

A ragged dervish accompanied us along with the caravan for Hijaz, and a
certain Arab prince presented him with a hundred dinars for the support
of his family. Suddenly a gang of Khafachah robbers attacked the
caravan, and completely stripped it. The merchants set up a weeping and
wailing, and made much useless lamentation and complaint:--"Whether thou
supplicatest them, or whether thou complainest, the robbers will not
return thee their plunder":--all but that ragged wretch, who stood
collected within himself, and unmoved by this adventure. I said:
"Perhaps they did not plunder you of that money?" He replied: "Yes, they
took it; but I was not so fond of my pet as to break my heart at parting
with it. We should not fix our heart so on any thing or being as to find
any difficulty in removing it."

I said: "What you have remarked corresponds precisely with what once
befell myself; for in my juvenile days I took a liking to a young man,
and so sincere was my attachment that the Cabah, or fane, of my eye was
his perfect beauty, and the profit of this life's traffic his
much-coveted society:--Perhaps the angels might in paradise, otherwise
no living form can on this earth display such a loveliness of person. By
friendship I swear that after his demise all loving intercourse is
forbidden; for no human emanation can stand a comparison with him.

"All at once the foot of his existence stumbled at the grave of
annihilation; and the sigh of separation burst from the dwelling of his
family. For many days I sat a fixture at his tomb, and, of the many
dirges I composed upon his demise, this is one:--'On that day, when thy
foot was pierced with the thorn of death, would to God the hand of fate
had cloven my head with the sword of destruction, that my eyes might not
this day have witnessed the world without thee. Such am I, seated at the
head of thy dust, as the ashes are seated on my own:--whoever could not
take his rest and sleep till they first had spread a bed of roses and
narcissuses for him: the whirlwind of the sky has scattered the roses of
his cheek, and brambles and thorns are shooting from his grave.'

"After my separation from him I came to a steady and firm
determination, that during my remaining life I would fold up the carpet
of enjoyment, and never re-enter the gay circle of society:--Were it not
for the dread of its waves, much would be the profits of a voyage at
sea; were it not for the vexation of the thorn, charming might be the
society of the rose. Yesterday I was walking stately as a peacock in the
garden of enjoyment; to-day I am writhing like a snake from the absence
of my mistress."


XVIII.

To a certain king of Arabia they were relating the story of Laila and
Mujnun, and his insane state, saying: "Notwithstanding his knowledge and
wisdom, he has turned his face towards the desert, and abandoned himself
to distraction." The king ordered that they bring him into his presence;
and he reproved him, and spoke, saying: "What have you seen unworthy in
the noble nature of man that you should assume the manners of a brute,
and forsake the enjoyment of human society?"

Mujnun wept and answered:--"_Many of my friends reproach me for my love
of her, namely Laila. Alas! that they could one day see her, that my
excuse might be manifest for me!_--Would to God that such as blame me
could behold thy face, O thou ravisher of hearts! that at the sight of
thee they might, from inadvertency, cut their own fingers instead of the
orange in their hands:--Then might the truth of the reality bear
testimony against the semblance of fiction, _what manner of person that
was for whose sake you were upbraiding me_."

The king resolved within himself, on viewing in person the charms of
Laila, that he might be able to judge what her form could be which had
caused all this misery, and ordered her to be produced in his presence.
Having searched through the Arab tribes, they discovered and presented
her before the king in the courtyard of his seraglio. He viewed her
figure, and beheld a person of a tawny complexion and feeble frame of
body. She appeared to him in a contemptible light, inasmuch as the
lowest menial in his harem, or seraglio, surpassed her in beauty and
excelled her in elegance. Mujnun, in his sagacity, penetrated what was
passing in the royal mind, and said: "It would behoove you, O king, to
contemplate the charms of Laila through the wicket of a Mujnun's eye,
in order that the miracle of such a spectacle might be illustrated to
you. Thou canst have no fellow-feeling for my disorder; a companion to
suit me must have the self-same malady, that I may sit by him the
livelong day repeating my tale; for by rubbing two pieces of dry
fire-wood one upon another they will burn all the brighter:--_had that
grove of verdant reeds heard the murmurings of love which in detail of
my mistress's story have passed through my ear, it would somehow have
sympathised in my pain. Tell it, O my friends, to such as are ignorant
of love; would ye could be aware of what wrings me to the soul_:--the
anguish of a wound is not known to the hale and sound; we must detail
our aches only to a fellow-sufferer. It were idle to talk of a hornet to
him who has never during his life smarted from its sting. Till thy
condition may in some sort resemble mine, my state will seem to thee an
idle fable. Compare not my pain with that of another man; he holds salt
in his hand, but I hold it on a wounded limb."

       *       *       *       *       *


XX

There was a handsome and well-disposed young man, who was embarked in a
vessel with a lovely damsel. I have read that, sailing on the mighty
deep, they fell together into a whirlpool. When the pilot came to offer
him assistance, saying: "God forbid that he should perish in that
distress," he was answering from the midst of that overwhelming vortex:
"Leave me, and take the hand of my beloved!" The whole world admired him
for this speech which, as he was expiring, he was heard to make. Learn
not the tale of love from that faithless wretch who can neglect his
beloved when exposed to danger. In this manner ended the lives of those
lovers. Listen to what has happened, that you may understand; for Sa'di
knows the ways and forms of courtship as well as the Tazi, or modern
Arabic, is understood at Bagdad. Devote your whole heart to the
heart-consoler you have chosen (namely, God), and let your eyes be shut
to the whole world beside. Were Laila and Mujnun to return into life,
they might read the history of love in this chapter.




CHAPTER VI

Of Imbecility and Old Age


I

In the metropolitan mosque at Damascus I was engaged in a disputation
with some learned men, when a youth suddenly entered the door, and said:
"Does any of you understand the Persian language?" They directed him to
me, and I answered: "It is true." He continued: "An old man of a hundred
and fifty years of age is in the agonies of death, and is uttering
something in the Persian language, which we do not understand. If you
will have the goodness to go to him you may get rewarded; for he
possibly may be dictating his will." When I sat down by his bedside I
heard him reciting:--"I said, I will enjoy myself for a few moments.
Alas! that my soul took the path of departure. Alas! at the variegated
table of life I partook a few mouthfuls, and the fates said, enough!"

I explained the signification of these lines in Arabic to the Syrians.
They were astonished that, at his advanced time of life, he should
express himself so solicitous about a worldly existence. I asked him:
"How do you now find yourself?" He replied: "What shall I say?--Hast
thou never witnessed what torture that man suffers from whose jaw they
are extracting a tooth? Fancy to thyself how excruciating is his pain
from whose precious body they are tearing an existence!"

I said: "Banish all thoughts of death from your mind, and let not doubt
undermine your constitution; for the Greek philosophers have remarked
that although our temperaments are vigorous, that is no proof of a long
life; and that although our sickness is dangerous, that is no positive
sign of immediate dissolution. If you will give me leave, I will call in
a physician to prescribe some medicine that may cure you." He replied:
"Alas! alas! The landlord thinks of refreshing the paintings of his
hall, and the house is tottering to its foundation. The physician smites
the hands of despair when he sees the aged fallen in pieces like a
potsherd; the old man bemoans himself in the agony of death while the
old attendant nurse is anointing him with sandal-wood. When the
equipoise of the temperament is overset, neither amulets nor medicaments
can do any good."

       *       *       *       *       *


III

In the territory of Diarbekr, or Mesopotamia, I was the guest of an old
man, who was very rich, and had a handsome son. One night he told a
story, saying: "During my whole life I never had any child but this boy.
And in this valley a certain tree is a place of pilgrimage, where people
go to supplicate their wants; and many was the night that I have
besought God at the foot of that tree before he would bestow upon me
this boy." I have heard that the son was also whispering his companions,
and saying: "How happy I should be if I could discover the site of that
tree, in order that I might pray for the death of my father." The
gentleman was rejoicing and saying: "What a sensible youth is my son!"
and the boy was complaining and crying: "What a tedious old dotard is my
father!" Many years are passing over thy head, during which thou didst
not visit thy father's tomb. What pious oblation didst thou make to the
manes of a parent that thou shouldst expect so much from thy son?


IV

Urged one day by the pride of youthful vanity, I had made a forced
march, and in the evening found myself exhausted at the bottom of an
acclivity. A feeble old man, who had deliberately followed the pace of
the caravan, came up to me and said: "How come you to lie down here? Get
up, this is no fit place for rest." I replied: "How can I proceed, who
have not a foot to stand on?" He said: "Have you not heard what the
prudent have remarked? 'Going on, and halting, is better than running
ahead and breaking down!' Ye who wish to reach the end of your journey,
hurry not on; practise my advice, and learn deliberation. The Arab horse
makes a few stretches at full speed, and is broken down; while the
camel, at its deliberate pace, travels on night and day, and gets to the
end of his journey."


V

An active, merry, cheerful, and sweet-spoken youth was for a length of
time in the circle of my society, whose heart had never known sorrow,
nor his lip ceased from being on a smile. An age had passed, during
which we had not chanced to meet. When I next saw him he had taken to
himself a wife, and got a family; and the root of his enjoyment was torn
up, and the rose of his mirth blasted. I asked him: "How is this?" He
replied: "Since I became a father of children, I ceased to play the
child:--Now thou art old, relinquish childishness, and leave it to the
young to indulge in play and merriment. Expect not the sprightliness of
youth from the aged; for the stream that ran by can never return. Now
that the corn is ripe for the sickle, it rears not its head as when
green and shooting. The season of youth has slipt through my hands;
alas! when I think on those heart-exhilarating days! The lion has lost
the sturdy grasp of his paw: I must now put up, like a lynx, with a bit
of cheese. An old woman had stained her gray locks black. I said to her:
O, my antiquated dame! thy hair I admit thou canst turn dark by art, but
thou never canst make thy crooked back straight."


VI

One day, in the perverseness of youth, I spoke with asperity to my
mother. Vexed at heart, she sat down in a corner, and with tears in her
eyes was saying: "You have perhaps forgot the days of infancy, that you
are speaking to me thus harshly.--How well did an old woman observe to
her own son, when she saw him powerful as a tiger, and formidable as an
elephant: 'Couldst thou call to mind those days of thy infancy when
helpless thou wouldst cling to this my bosom, thou wouldst not thus
assail me with savage fury, now thou art a lion-like hero, and I am a
poor old woman.'"


VII

A rich miser had a son who was grievously sick. His well-wishers and
friends spoke to him, saying: "It were proper that you either read the
Koran throughout or offer an animal in sacrifice, in order that the Most
High God may restore him to health." After a short reflection within
himself he answered, "It is better to read the Koran, which is ready at
hand; and my herds are at a distance." A good and holy man heard this
and remarked: "He makes choice of the reading part because the Koran
slips glibly over the tongue, but his money is to be wrung from the soul
of him. Fie upon that readiness to bow the head in prayer; would that
the hand of charity could accompany it! In bestowing a dinar he will
stickle like an ass in the mire; but ask him to read the Al-hamdi, or
first chapter of the Koran, and he will recite it a hundred times."




CHAPTER VII

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."




CHAPTER VIII

Of the Duties of Society


I

Riches are intended for the comfort of life, and not life for the
purpose of hoarding riches. I asked a wise man, saying: "Who is the
fortunate man, and who is the unfortunate?" He said: "That man was
fortunate who spent and gave away, and that man unfortunate who died and
left behind:--Pray not for that good-for-nothing man who did nothing,
for he passed his life in hoarding riches, and did not spend them."


II

The prophet Moses, on whom be peace, _admonished Carum, saying: "Be
bounteous in like manner as God has been bounteous to thee_":--but he
listened not, and you have heard the end of him. Whoever did not an act
of charity with his silver and gold, sacrificed his future prospects on
his hoard of gold and silver. If desirous that thou shouldst benefit by
the wealth of this world, be generous with thy fellow-creature, as God
has been generous with thee.

The Arabs say:--"_Show thy generosity, but make it not obligatory, that
the benefit of it may redound to thee_":--that is, bestow and make
presents, but do not exact an obligation that the profit of that act may
be returned to you. Wherever the tree of generosity strikes root it
sends forth its boughs, and they shoot above the skies. If thou
cherishest a hope of enjoying its fruit, by gratitude I entreat of thee
not to lay a saw upon its trunk. Render thanks to God, that thou wert
found worthy of his divine grace, that he has not excluded thee from the
riches of his bounty. Esteem it no obligation that thou art serving the
king, but show thy gratitude to him, namely God, who has placed thee in
this service.


III

Two persons labored to a vain, and studied to an unprofitable end: he
who hoarded wealth and did not spend it, and he who acquired science and
did not practise it:--However much thou art read in theory, if thou hast
no practice thou art ignorant. He is neither a sage philosopher nor an
acute divine, but a beast of burden with a load of books. How can that
brainless head know or comprehend whether he carries on his back a
library or bundle of fagots?


IV

Learning is intended to fortify religious practice, and not to gratify
worldly traffic:--Whoever prostituted his temperance, piety, and
science, gathered his harvest into a heap and set fire to it.


V

An intemperate man of learning is like a blind link-boy:--_He shows the
road to others, but sees it not himself_:--whoever ventured his life on
an unproductive hazard gained nothing by the risk, and lost his own
stake.


VI

A kingdom is embellished by the wise, and religion rendered illustrious
by the pious. Kings stand more in need of the company of the intelligent
than the intelligent do of the society of kings:--If, O king! thou wilt
listen to my advice, in all thy archives thou canst not find a wiser
maxim than this: entrust thy concerns only to the learned,
notwithstanding business is not a learned man's concern.


VII

Three things have no durability without their concomitants: property
without trade, knowledge without debate, or a sovereignty without
government.


VIII

To compassionate the wicked is to tyrannize over the good; and to pardon
the oppressor is to deal harshly with the oppressed:--When thou
patronizest and succorest the base-born man, he looks to be made the
partner of thy fortune.


IX

No reliance can be placed on the friendship of kings, nor vain hope put
in the melodious voice of boys; for that passes away like a vision, and
this vanishes like a dream:--Bestow not thy affections upon a mistress
who has a thousand lovers; or, if thou bestowest them upon her, be
prepared for a separation.


X

Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how can you tell but
that friend may hereafter become an enemy? And bring not all the
mischief you are able to do upon an enemy, for he may one day become
your friend. And any private affair that you wish to keep secret, do not
divulge to anybody; for, though such a person has your confidence, none
can be so true to your secret as yourself:--Silence is safer than to
communicate the thought of thy mind to anybody, and to warn him, saying:
Do not divulge it, O silly man! confine the water at the dam-head, for
once it has a vent thou canst not stop it. Thou shouldst not utter a
word in secret which thou wouldst not have spoken in the face of the
public.


XI

A reduced foe, who offers his submission and courts your amity, can only
have in view to become a strong enemy, as they have said: "You cannot
trust the sincerity of friends, then what are you to expect from the
cajoling of foes?" Whoever despises a weak enemy resembles him who
neglects a spark of fire:--To-day that thou canst quench it, put it
out; for let fire rise into a flame, and it may consume a whole world.
Now that thou canst transfix him with thy arrow, permit not thy
antagonist to string his bow.


XIII

Whoever is making a league with their enemies has it in his mind to do
his friends an ill turn:--"O wise man! wash thy hands of that friend who
is in confederacy with thy foes."


XIV

When irresolute in the despatch of business, incline to that side which
is the least offensive:--Answer not with harshness a mild-spoken man,
nor force him into war who knocks at the gate of peace.


XV

So long as money can answer, it were wrong in any business to put the
life in danger:--as the Arabs say:--"_let the sword decide after
stratagem has failed_":--When the hand is balked in every crafty
endeavor, it is lawful to lay it upon the hilt of the sabre.


XVI

Show no mercy to a subdued foe, for if he recover himself he will show
you no mercy:--When thou seest thy antagonist in a reduced state, curl
not thy whiskers at him in contempt, for in every bone there is marrow,
and within every jacket there is a man.


XVII

Whoever puts a wicked man to death delivers mankind from his mischief,
and the wretch himself from God's vengeance:--Beneficence is
praiseworthy; yet thou shouldst not administer a balsam to the wound of
the wicked. Knew he not who took compassion on a snake, that it is the
pest of the sons of Adam.


XVIII

It is wrong to follow the advice of an adversary; nevertheless it is
right to hear it, that you may do the contrary; and this is the essence
of good policy:--Sedulously shun whatever thy foe may recommend,
otherwise thou may'st wring the hands of repentance on thy knees. Should
he show thee to the right a path straight as an arrow, turn aside from
that, and take the path to the left.

       *       *       *       *       *


XX

Two orders of mankind are the enemies of church and state: the king
without clemency, and the holy man without learning:--Let not that
prince have rule over the state who is not himself obedient to the will
of God.


XXI

It behooves a king so to regulate his anger towards his enemies as not
to alarm the confidence of his friends; for the fire of passion falls
first on the angry man; afterwards its sparks will dart forth towards
the foe, and him they may reach, or they may not. It ill becomes the
children of Adam, formed of dust, to harbor in their head such pride,
arrogance, and passion. I cannot fancy all this thy warmth and obstinacy
to be created from earth, but from fire. I went to a holy man in the
land of Bailcan, and said: "Cleanse me of ignorance by thy instruction?"
He replied: "O fakir, or theologician! go and bear things patiently like
the earth; or whatever thou hast read let it all be buried under the
earth."


XXII

An evil-disposed man is a captive in the hands of an enemy (namely,
himself); for wherever he may go he cannot escape from the grasp of that
enemy's vengeance:--Let a wicked man ascend up to heaven, that he may
escape from the grasp of calamity; even thither would the hand of his
own evil heart follow him with misfortune.


XXIII

When you see discord raging among the troops of your enemy, be on your
side quiet; but if you see them united, think of your own dispersed
state:--When thou beholdest war among thy foes, go and enjoy peace with
thy friends; but if thou findest them of one soul and mind, string thy
bow, and range stones around thy battlements.

       *       *       *       *       *


XXVI

Keep to yourself any intelligence that may prove unpleasant, till some
person else has disclosed it:--Bring, O nightingale! the glad tidings of
the spring, and leave to the owl to be the harbinger of evil.

       *       *       *       *       *


XXVIII

Whoever is counselling a self-sufficient man stands himself in need of a
counsellor.


XXIX

Swallow not the wheedling of a rival, nor pay for the sycophancy of a
parasite; for that has laid the snare of treachery, and this whetted the
palate of gluttony. The fool is puffed up with his own praise, like a
dead body, which on being stretched upon a bier shows a momentary
corpulency:--Take heed and listen not to the sycophant's blandishments,
who expects in return some small compensation; for shouldst thou any day
disappoint his object he would in like style sum up two hundred of thy
defects.


XXX

Till some person may show its defects, the speech of the orator will
fail of correctness:--Be not vain of the eloquence of thy discourse
because it has the fool's good opinion, and thine own approbation.


XXXI

Every person thinks his own intellect perfect, and his own child
handsome:--A Mussulman and a Jew were warm in argument to such a degree
that I smiled at their subject. The Mussulman said in wrath: "If this
deed of conveyance be not authentic may I, O God, die a Jew!" The Jew
replied: "On the Pentateuch I swear, if what I say be false, I am a
Mussulman like you!" Were intellect to be annihilated from the face of
the earth, nobody could be brought to say: "I am ignorant."


XXXII

Ten people will partake of the same joint of meat, and two dogs will
snarl over a whole carcase. The greedy man is incontinent with a whole
world set before him; the temperate man is content with his crust of
bread:--A loaf of brown bread may fill an empty stomach, but the produce
of the whole globe cannot satisfy a greedy eye:--My father, when the sun
of his life was going down, gave me this sage advice, and it set for
good, saying: "Lust is a fire; refrain from indulging it, and do not
involve thyself in the flames of hell. Since thou hast not the strength
of burning in those flames (as a punishment in the next world), pour in
this world the water of continence upon this fire--namely, lust."


XXXIII

Whoever does not do good, when he has the means of doing it, will suffer
hardship when he has not the means:--None is more unlucky than the
misanthrope, for on the day of adversity he has not a single friend.


XXXIV

Life stands on the verge of a single breath; and this world is an
existence between two nonentities. Such as truck their deen, or
religious practice, for worldly pelf are asses. They sold Joseph, and
what got they by their bargain?--"_Did I not covenant with you, O ye
sons of Adam, that you should not serve Satan; for verily he is your
avowed enemy_":--By the advice of a foe you broke your faith with a
friend; behold from whom you separated, and with whom you united
yourselves.

       *       *       *       *       *


XXXVI

Whatever is produced in haste goes hastily to waste:--I have heard that,
after a process of forty years, they convert the clay of the East into a
China porcelain cup. At Bagdad they can make an hundred cups in a day,
and thou may'st of course conceive their respective value. A chicken
walks forth from its shell, and goes in quest of its food; the young of
man possesses not that instinct of prudence and discrimination. That
which was at once something comes to nothing; and this surpasses all
creatures in dignity and wisdom. A piece of crystal or glass is found
everywhere, and held of no value; a ruby is obtained with difficulty,
and therefore inestimable.


XXXVII

Patience accomplishes its object, while hurry speeds to its ruin:--With
my own eyes I saw in the desert that the deliberate man outstripped him
that had hurried on. The wing-footed steed is broken down in his speed,
whilst the camel-driver jogs on with his beast to the end of his
journey.


XXXVIII

Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence, and if he knew this
he would no longer be ignorant:--When unadorned with the grace of
eloquence it is wise to keep watch over the tongue in the mouth. The
tongue, by abuse, renders a man contemptible; levity in a nut is a sign
of its being empty. A fool was undertaking the instruction of an ass,
and had devoted his whole time to this occupation. A wise man said to
him: "What art thou endeavoring to do? In this vain attempt dread the
reproof of the censorious! A brute can never learn speech from thee; do
thou learn silence from him." That man who reflects not before he speaks
will only make all the more improper answer. Either like a man arrange
thy speech with judgment, or like a brute sit silent.


XXXIX

Whoever shall argue with one more learned than himself that others may
take him for a wise man, only confirms them in his being a fool:--"When
a person superior to what thou art engages thee in conversation do not
contradict him, though thou may'st know better."


XL

He can see no good who will associate with the wicked:--Were an angel
from heaven to associate with a demon, he would learn his brutality,
perfidy, and hypocrisy. Virtue thou never canst learn of the vicious; it
is not the wolf's occupation to mend skins, but to tear them.


XLI

Expose not the secret failings of mankind, otherwise you must verily
bring scandal upon them and distrust upon yourself.


XLII

Whoever acquires knowledge and does not practise it resembles him who
ploughs his land and leaves it unsown.

       *       *       *       *       *


XLVI

It is not every man that has a handsome physical exterior that has a
good moral character; for the faculty of business or virtue resides in
the heart and not in the skin. Thou canst in one day ascertain the
intellectual faculties of a man, and what proficiency he has made in his
degrees of knowledge; but be not secure of his mind, nor foolishly sure,
for it may take years to detect the innate baseness of the heart.


XLVII

Whoever contends with the great sheds his own blood:--Thou contemplatest
thyself as a mighty great man; and they have truly remarked that the
squinter sees double. Thou who canst in play butt with a ram must soon
find thyself with a broken pate.


XLVIII

To grapple with a lion, or to box against a naked scimitar, are not the
acts of the prudent:--Brave not the furious with war and opposition
before their arms of strength cross thy hands of submission.


XLIX

A weak man who tries his courage against the strong leagues with the foe
to his own destruction:--Nurtured in a shade, what strength can he have
that he should engage with the warlike in battle; impotent of arm, he
was falling the victim of folly when he set his wrist in opposition to a
wrist of iron.


L

Whoever will not listen to admonition harbors the fancy of hearing
reprehension:--When advice gains not an admission into the ear, if I
give thee reproof, hear it in silence.


LI

The idle cannot endure the industrious any more than the curs of the
market-place, who, on meeting dogs employed for sporting, will snarl at
and prevent them passing.


LII

A mean wretch that cannot vie with another in virtue will assail him
with malignity:--The narrow-minded envier will somehow manage to revile
thee, who in thy presence might have the tongue of his utterance struck
dumb.

       *       *       *       *       *


LV

To hold counsel with women is bad, and to deal generously
with prodigals a fault:--Showing mercy upon the sharp-fanged
pard must prove an injustice to the harmless sheep.


LVI

Whoever has his foe at his mercy, and does not kill him, is his own
enemy:--With a stone in his hand, and the snake's head convenient, a
wise man hesitates not in crushing it.

Certain people have seen this maxim in an opposite point of view,
saying: "It were wiser to delay the execution of captives, inasmuch as
the option is left so that you can slay, or you can release them; but if
you shall have heedlessly put them to death, the policy is defunct, for
the opportunity of repairing it is lost":--There is no great difficulty
to separate the soul from the body, but it is not so easy to restore
life to the dead: prudence dictates patience in giving the arrow flight,
for let it quit the bow and it never can be recalled.


LVII

A learned man who has got into an argument with the ignorant can have no
hopes of supporting his own dignity; and if an ignoramus by his
loquacity gets the upper hand it should not surprise us, for he is a
stone and can bruise a gem:--No wonder if his spirit flag; the
nightingale is cooped up in the same cage with the crow:--If the man of
sense is coarsely treated by the vulgar, let it not excite our wrath and
indignation; if a piece of worthless stone can bruise a cup of gold, its
worth is not increased, nor that of the gold diminished.

       *       *       *       *       *


LX

Genius without education is the subject of our regret, and education
without genius is labor lost. Although embers have a lofty origin (fire
being of a noble nature), yet, as having no intrinsic worth, they fall
upon a level with common dust; on the other hand, sugar does not derive
its value from the cane, but from its own innate quality:--Inasmuch as
the disposition of Canaan was bad, his descent from the prophet Noah
stood him in no stead. Pride thyself on what virtue thou hast, and not
on thy parentage; the rose springs from a thorn-bush, and Abraham from
Azor (neither his father's name, or fire).


LXI

That is musk which discloses itself by its smell, and not what the
perfumers impose upon us:--If a man be expert in any art he needs not
tell it, for his own skill will show it.


LXII

A wise man is, like a vase in a druggist's shop, silent, but full of
virtues; and the ignorant man resembles the drum of the warrior, being
full of noise, and an empty babbler:--The sincerely devout have remarked
that a learned man beset by the illiterate is like one of the lovely in
a circle of the blind, or the holy Koran in the dwelling of the infidel.


LXIII

A friend whom they take an age to conciliate, it were wrong all at once
to alienate:--In a series of years a stone changes into a ruby; take
heed, and destroy it not at once by dashing it against another stone.


LXIV

Reason is in like manner enthralled by passion, as an uxorious man is in
the hands of an artful woman. Thou may'st shut the door of joy upon that
dwelling where thou hearest resounding the scolding voice of a woman.


LXV

Intellect, without firmness, is craft and chicanery; and firmness,
without intellect, perverseness and obstinacy:--First, prudence, good
sense, and discrimination, and then dominion; for the dominion and good
fortune of the ignorant are the armor of rebellion against God.


LXVI

The sinner who spends and gives away is better than the devotee who begs
and lays by.


LXVII

Whoever foregoes carnal indulgence in order to get the good opinion of
mankind, has forsaken a lawful passion and involved himself in what is
forbidden:--What, wretched creature! can that hermit see in his own
tarnished mirror, or heart, who retires to a cell, but not for the sake
of God?


LXIX

A wise man should not through clemency overlook the insolence of the
vulgar, otherwise both sustain a loss, for their respect for him is
lessened and their own brutality confirmed:--When thou addressest the
low with urbanity and kindness, it only adds to their pride and
arrogance.

       *       *       *       *       *


LXXIV

In a season of drought and scarcity ask not the distressed dervish,
saying: "How are you?" Unless on the condition that you apply a balm to
his wound, and supply him with the means of subsistence:--The ass which
thou seest stuck in the slough with his rider, compassionate from thy
heart, otherwise do not go near him. Now that thou went and asked him
how he fell, like a sturdy fellow bind up thy loins, and take his ass by
the tail.


LXXV

Two things are repugnant to reason: to expend more than what Providence
has allotted for us, and to die before our ordained time:--Whether
offered up in gratitude, or uttered in complaint, destiny cannot be
altered by a thousand sighs and lamentations. The angel who presides
over the store-house of the winds feels no compunction, though he
extinguish the old woman's lamp.


LXXVI

O you that are going in quest of food, sit down, that you may have to
eat. And, O you that death is in quest of, go not on, for you cannot
carry life along with you:--In search of thy daily bread, whether thou
exertest thyself, or whether thou dost not, the God of Majesty and Glory
will equally provide it. Wert thou to walk into the mouth of a tiger or
lion, he could not devour thee, unless by the ordinance of thy destiny.


LXXVII

Whatever was not designed, the hand cannot reach; and whatever was
ordained, it can attain in any situation:--Thou hast heard that
Alexander got as far as chaos; but after all this toil he drank not the
water of immortality.


LXXVIII

The fisherman, unless it be his lot, catches no fish in the Tigris; and
the fish, unless it be its fate, does not die on the dry land:--The
wretched miser is prowling all over the world, he in quest of pelf, and
death in quest of him.

       *       *       *       *       *


LXXXI

The envious man is niggard of the gifts of Providence, and an enemy of
the innocent:--I met a dry-brained fellow of this sort, tricked forth in
the robe of a dignified person. I said: "O sir! if thou art unfortunate
in having this disposition, in what have the fortunate been to
blame?--Take heed, and wish not misfortune to the misanthrope, for his
own ill-conditioned lot is calamity sufficient. What need is there of
showing ill-will to him, who has such an enemy close at his heels."


LXXXII

A scholar without diligence is a lover without money; a traveller
without knowledge is a bird without wings; a theorist without practice
is a tree without fruit; and a devotee without learning is a house
without an entrance.


LXXXIII

The object of sending the Koran down from heaven was that mankind might
make it a manual of morals, and not that they should recite it by
sections.


LXXXIV

The sincere publican has proceeded on foot; the slothful Pharisee is
mounted and gone asleep.


LXXXV

The sinner who humbles himself in prayer is more acceptable than the
devotee who is puffed up with pride:--The courteous and kind-hearted
soldier of fortune is better than the misanthropic and learned divine.


LXXXVI

A learned man without works is a bee without honey:--Tell that harsh and
ungenerous hornet: As thou yieldest no honey, wound not with thy sting.

       *       *       *       *       *


LXXXIX

Though a dress presented by the sovereign be honorable, yet is our own
tattered garment preferable; and though the viands at a great man's
table be delicate, yet is our own homely fare more sweet:--A salad and
vinegar, the produce of our own industry, are sweeter than the lamb and
bread sauce at the table of our village chief.


XC

It is contrary to sound judgment, and repugnant to the maxims of the
prudent, to take a medicine on conjecture, or to follow a road but in
the track of the caravan.


XCI

They asked Imaam Mursheed Mohammed-bin-Mohammed Ghazali, on whom be
God's mercy, how he had reached such a pitch of knowledge. He replied:
"Whatever I was ignorant of myself, I felt no shame in asking of
others":--Thy prospect of health conforms with reason, when thy pulse is
in charge of a skilled physician. Ask whatever thou knowest not; for the
condescension of inquiring is a guide on thy road in the excellence of
learning.


XCII

Anything you foresee that you may somehow come to know, be not hasty in
questioning, lest your consequence and respectability may suffer:--When
Lucman perceived that in the hands of David iron was miraculously
moulded like wax, he asked him not, How didst thou do it? for he was
aware that he should know it, through his own wisdom, without asking.


XCIII

It is one of the laws of good breeding that you should forego an
engagement, or accommodate yourself to the master of the
entertainment:--If thou knowest that the inclination is reciprocal,
accommodate thy story to the temper of the hearer. Any discreet man that
was in Mujnun's company would entertain him only with encomiums on
Laila.

       *       *       *       *       *


XCVI

Whoever interrupts the conversation of others to make a display of his
fund of knowledge makes notorious his own stock of ignorance.
Philosophers have said:--A prudent man will not obtrude his answer till
he has the question stated to him in form. Notwithstanding the
proposition may have its right demonstration, the cavil of the
fastidious will construe it wrong.

       *       *       *       *       *


XCVIII

To tell a falsehood is like the cut of a sabre; for though the wound may
heal, the scar of it will remain. In like manner as the brothers of the
blessed Joseph, who, being notorious for a lie, had no credit afterwards
when they spoke the truth:--God on high has said--Jacob is supposed to
speak--(Koran xii. Sale ii. 35):--"_Nay, but rather ye have contrived
this to gratify your own passion; yet it behooves me to be
patient_":--If a man who is in the habit of speaking truth lets a
mistake escape him, we can overlook it; but if he be notorious for
uttering falsehoods, and tell a truth, thou wilt call it a lie.


XCIX

The noblest of creatures is man, and the vilest of animals is no doubt a
dog; yet, in the concurring opinion of the wise, a dog, thankful for his
food, is more worthy than a human being who is void of gratitude:--A dog
will never forget the crumb thou gavest him, though thou may'st
afterwards throw a hundred stones at his head; but foster with thy
kindness a low man for an age, and on the smallest provocation he will
be up against thee in arms.

       *       *       *       *       *


CI

It is written in the Injeel, or Gospel, stating: "O son of man, if I
bestow riches upon you, you will be more intent upon your property than
upon me, and if I leave you in poverty you will sit down dejected; how
then can you feel a relish to praise, or a zeal to worship
me?"--(Proverbs xxx. 7, 8, 9.) In the day of plenty thou art proud and
negligent; in the time of want, full of sorrow and dejected; since in
prosperity and adversity such is thy condition, it were difficult to
state when thou wouldst voluntarily do thy duty.


CII

The pleasure of Him, or God, who has no equal hurls one man from a
throne of sovereignty, and another he preserves in a fish's
belly:--Happy proceeds his time who is enraptured with thy praise,
though, like Jonah, he even may pass it in the belly of a fish!


CIII

Were the Almighty to unsheath the sword of his wrath, prophets and
patriarchs would draw in their heads; and were he to deign a glimpse of
his benevolence, it would reach the wicked along with the good:--Were he
on the day of judgment to call us to a strict account, even the prophets
would have no room for excuse. Say, withdraw the veil from the face of
thy compassion, that sinners may entertain hopes of pardon.


CIV

Whoever is not to be brought into the path of righteousness by the
punishments of this life shall be overtaken with the punishments of that
to come:--"_Verily, I will cause them to taste the lesser punishment
over and above the greater punishment":_--(Koran xxxii. Sale ii. 258.)
Princes, in chastising, admonish, and then confine; when they admonish,
and thou listenest not, they throw thee into prison.


CV

Men of auspicious fortune would rather take warning from the precepts
and examples of their predecessors than that the rising generation
should take warning from their acts:--The bird will not approach the
grain that is spread about, where it sees another bird a captive in the
snare. Take warning by the mischance of others, that others may not take
warning by thine.


CVI

How can he help himself who was born deaf, if he cannot hear; and what
can he do whose thread of fortune is dragging him on that he may not
proceed:--The dark night of such as are beloved of God is serene and
light as the bright day; but this good fortune results not from thine
own strength of arm, till God in his mercy deign to bestow it. To whom
shall I complain of thee? for there is no judge else, nor is any arm
mightier than thine. Him whom thou directest none can lead astray, and
him whom thou bewilderest none can direct upon his way.


CVII

The beggar whose end is good is better off than the king whose end is
evil:--That sorrow which is the harbinger of joy is preferable to the
joy which is followed by sorrow.


CVIII

The sky enriches the earth with rain, and the earth gives it dust in
return. As the Arabs say: "_What the vessels have, that they give_."--If
my moral character strike thee as improper, do not renounce thine own
good character.


CIX

The Most High God discerns and hides what is improper; my neighbor sees
not, and is loud in his clamor:--God preserve us! if man knew what is
hidden, none could be safe from the animadversion of his neighbor.


CX

Gold is got from the mine by digging into the earth; and from the grasp
of the miser by taking away his life:--Misers spend not, but watch with
solicitude: expectation, they say, is preferable to waste. Next day
observe to the joy of their enemies, the gold remains, and they are dead
without the enjoyment of that hope.


CXI

Such as deal hard with the weak will suffer from the extortion of the
strong:--It is not every arm in which there is strength that can wrench
the hand of a weak man. Bring not affliction upon the hearts of the
feeble, lest thou may'st fall under the lash of the strong.


CXII

A wise man, where he meets opposition, labors to get through it, and
where he finds quiet he drops his anchor, for there safety is on one
side, and here enjoyment in the middle of it.


CXIII

The gamester wants three sixes, but he throws only three aces:--The
pasture meadow is a thousand times richer than the common, but the horse
has not his tether at command.


CXIV

The dervish in his prayer is saying: "O God, have compassion on the
wicked, for to the good thou hast been abundantly kind, inasmuch as thou
hast made them virtuous."


CXV

Jemshid was the first person who put an edging round his garment, and a
ring upon his finger. They asked him: "Why did you bestow all the
decoration and ornament on the left hand, whilst the right is the
superior?" He answered: "Sufficient for the right is the ornament of
being right." Feridún commanded the gilders of China that they would
inscribe upon the front of his palace: "Strive, O wise man, to make the
wicked good, for the good are of themselves great and fortunate."


CXVI

They said to a great and holy man: "Notwithstanding the superiority that
the right hand commands, who do they wear the ring on the left hand?" He
replied: "Are you not aware that the best are most neglected! He who
casts our horoscope, provision, and fortune, bestows upon us either good
luck or wisdom."


CXVII

It is proper for him to offer counsel to kings who dreads not to lose
his head, nor looks for a reward:--Whether thou strewest heaps of gold
at his feet, or brandishest an Indian sword over the Unitarian's head,
to hope or fear he is alike indifferent; and in this the divine unity
alone he is resolved and firm.


CXVIII

It belongs to the king to displace extortioners, to the superintendent
of the police to guard against murderers, and to the cazi to decide in
quarrels and disputes. No two complainants ever referred to the cazi
content to abide by justice:--When thou knowest that in right the claim
is just, better pay with a grace than by distress and force. If a man is
refractory in discharging his revenue, the collector must necessarily
coerce him to pay it.


CXIX

Every man's teeth are blunted by acids excepting the cazi's, and they
require sweets:--That cazi, or judge, that can accept of five cucumbers
as a bribe, will confirm thee in a right to ten fields of melons.

       *       *       *       *       *


CXXI

They asked a wise man, saying: "Of the many celebrated trees which the
Most High God has created lofty and umbrageous, they call none azad, or
free, excepting the cypress, which bears no fruit; what mystery is there
in this?" He replied: "Each has its appropriate produce and appointed
season, during the continuance of which it is fresh and blooming, and
during their absence dry and withered; to neither of which states is the
cypress exposed, being always flourishing; and of this nature are the
azads, or religious independents. Fix not thy heart on what is
transitory; for the Dijlah, or Tigris, will continue to flow through
Bagdad after the race of Khalifs is extinct. If thy hand has plenty, be
liberal as the date-tree; but if it affords nothing to give away, be an
azad, or free man, like the cypress."


CXXII

Two orders of mankind died, and carried with them regret: such as had
and did not spend, and such as knew and did not practise:--None can see
that wretched mortal a miser who will not endeavor to point out his
faults; but were the generous man to have a hundred defects, his
liberality would cover all his blemishes.




THE CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK


The book of the "Gulistan, or Flower-Garden," was completed through the
assistance and grace of God. Throughout the whole of this work I have
not followed the custom of writers by inserting verses of poetry
borrowed from former authors:--"It is more decorous to wear our own
patched and old cloak than to ask in loan another man's garment."

Most of Sa'di's sayings have a dash of hilarity and an odor of gayety
about them, in consequence of which short-sighted critics extend the
tongue of animadversion, saying: It is not the occupation of sensible
men to solicit marrow from a shrivelled brain, or to digest the smoke of
a profitless lamp. Nevertheless it cannot be concealed from the
enlightened judgment of the holy and good, to whom these discourses are
specially addressed, that the pearls of salutary admonition are threaded
on the cord of an elegance of language, and the bitter potion of
instruction sweetened with the honey of facetiousness, that the taste of
the reader may not take disgust, and himself be debarred from the
pleasure of approving of them: "On our part we offered some good advice,
and spent an age in bringing it to perfection. If that should not meet
the ear of anybody's good-will, prophets deliver their messages, or warn
mankind; and that is enough."

"_O thou who perusest this book, ask the mercy of God on the author of
it: his forgiveness on the transcriber. Petition for whatever charitable
gift thou mayst require for thyself, and implore pardon on the owner_."
May I crave thy prayer on the English translator? _The book is finished
through the favor of the Lord God Paramount and the bestower of all
good_!



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COMPRISING THE SHAH NAMEH, THE RUBAIYAT, THE DIVAN, AND THE GULISTAN
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