The Persian Literature Volume Ii Part 11

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 t.i.thes, 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 compet.i.tion with that? The lord of plenty has his mind fixed on G.o.d; when a man's fortune is bankrupt, so is his heart:--accordingly, the devotion of the rich is more acceptable at the temple of G.o.d, 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: '_G.o.d 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 ent.i.tle 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 G.o.d 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 appet.i.tes, 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 appet.i.te, may feel desirous of gratifying his l.u.s.t; 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 circ.u.mstances 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 a.s.s? 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 circ.u.mstances will s.n.a.t.c.h 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 a.s.s, 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 G.o.d, nor bestow their charity without laying you under obligation and thanks. They h.o.a.rd 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 h.o.a.rds 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 n.i.g.g.ard." 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 n.o.body 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 n.o.body 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 p.a.w.n 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 G.o.d 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 cla.s.ses 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 sh.e.l.ls. 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:--_G.o.d is all-sufficient for him who trusts in G.o.d_."

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 G.o.d's bounty; who are collecting and h.o.a.rding 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 cla.s.s, 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 h.o.a.rding 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 pa.s.sed his life in h.o.a.rding riches, and did not spend them."

II

The prophet Moses, on whom be peace, _admonished Carum, saying: "Be bounteous in like manner as G.o.d 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 h.o.a.rd of gold and silver. If desirous that thou shouldst benefit by the wealth of this world, be generous with thy fellow-creature, as G.o.d 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 grat.i.tude I entreat of thee not to lay a saw upon its trunk. Render thanks to G.o.d, 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 grat.i.tude to him, namely G.o.d, who has placed thee in this service.

III

Two persons labored to a vain, and studied to an unprofitable end: he who h.o.a.rded 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 f.a.gots?

IV

Learning is intended to fortify religious practice, and not to gratify worldly traffic:--Whoever prost.i.tuted 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 ill.u.s.trious 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 compa.s.sionate 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 pa.s.ses 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