I know that greed and appetite could not overcome his abstinence and contentment; and that covetousness and lust could not gallop the steed of hope in the plain of his vision and knowledge. Moreover, during this long period that Farísah has been an attendant of this court he has never eaten flesh; and, previous to that, too, he was famed and celebrated for this quality. His abstaining from eating animal food was in every mouth, and had reached all ears. HEMISTICH. Not so prolonged would vain words be. And the probability is that enemies put the flesh in Farísah's abode. And it is not to be supposed that this is too much for the deceit of the fraudulent, or the envy of the invidious to effect. For among the envious there has been one who, in expectation that it might be injurious to another, was a consenting party to his own death, as that wretched merchant ordered the slave to kill him.' The Lion requested to know, 'How was that?' STORY IV. The lioness said, 'They have related that there was in Baghdad an envious man, who had a neighbor a poor man and a pious, who passed his days in traversing the waste of fasting with the step of abstinence, and his nights in traveling the roads of worship by the path of nocturnal prayer and spiritual conflict. COUPLET. His heart, a lamp of love, he did illume; The inhabitants of Baghdad turned the face of confidence towards that holy man, and his goodness was talked of in their assemblies and public meetings and the great men of the city used to notice him kindly and by way of present, and, to secure his blessing, used to send offerings of money and goods to him. On these several accounts the envious man envied his good neighbor, and made various attempts to injure him, but every arrow of deceit which he discharged from the bow of calumny was rendered nugatory by the shield of innocence and the armor of piety. At last he was reduced to despair about this, and was utterly wearied. He then bought a slave, and made a point of according to him all possible kindnesses and rewards, and fulfilled all the requirements of compassionate feeling and care towards him. He used constantly to say, 'I am cherishing thee for a particular object, and bringing thee up for a thing of the greatest importance, and I hope that thou wilt extricate my heart from that load, and free my sad soul from that care. COUPLET. With the tears I fondly cherish, with the pangs that wring my frame, I am hopeful, yes! I feel that I shall quench this cruel flame. After a considerable time had passed, and the slave became firmly obedient, and submissively disposed, he several times begged with the tongue of entreaty to undertake the promised affair, and to enter upon the business in which the wish of his master was contained, and said, 'I am not able to express by the force of language the various favors and kindnesses which thou hast lavished on this helpless person, nor by the aid of description can I distinctly set forth the condescending attentions and benefits with which thou hast distinguished this humble slave. COUPLET. Thy favor makes thy slave a lily seem, Each limb a tongue of praise, and thou the theme. I desire, in return for these demonstrations of kindness, that I may shew my devotion, and perform service in requital of these benefits. The coin of life I'll sacrifice for thee, COUPLET. And for thy ends my soul shall offered be.' When the master saw that his slave aimed at shewing his gratitude and was ambitions of proving his attachment, he raised the curtain from before the affair and said, 'Know and understand that I am tired of my life by reason of this neighbor of mine, and I wish by some means or other to bring a misfortune upon him. In spite of all the artifices I have set on foot, and the expedients I have contrived, the arrow of my counsel has not reached the target of desire; and the fire of envy blazes forth every moment in my heart and makes life odious to me. And from chagrin on his account I loathe the enjoyments of life, and am disgusted with my own existence. I have cherished thee during this long interval, that thou mayest this night kill me on my neighbor's terrace, and leave me there and depart; in order that, when they see me there in the morning a corpse, they may, as of course they will, apprehend him on suspicion of the murder; and so he will be despoiled of his property and life, and his character for goodness and virtue will be destroyed, and men's faith in him will end in being marred, and he will no longer be able to boast of his piety and austerity. And to men's sorrow the meaning of this couplet will come true with regard to him, in that they have said, COUPLET. The pious man affects too much: O God! his curtain draw away, The slave replied, 'O master! relinquish this thought, and set about managing this affair differently; and if thy wish is to get rid of the holy man, I will slay him, and will set thy heart at ease with regard to him.' The master rejoined, That is a complicated and long affair. Perhaps thou mayest not get him into thy power, nor be able to kill him so quickly, and I have no more patience or endurance left. Arise! and perform this service, and make me satisfied with myself; and lo! I hand over to thee a writing of manumission, and I give thee a purse of gold, with which thou wilt be able to support thyself all thy life, that thou mayest depart from this city, and take up thy abode in another country.' The slave replied, 'O master! no wise man entertains this thought which thou hast formed; and no one who has drawn in the perfume of good sense, sets forth such a scheme as thou hast set forth. For the misfortune of an enemy may, indeed, be desirable in one's lifetime; but when thou hast passed beyond the circle of existence, what gratification will there be to thee from his execution? and what advantage from his being racked and imprisoned? COUPLET. Bid the tulip cease to grow when I have left the gay parterre; However much he spake after this fashion, it was of no avail; and, when the slave saw that his master's inclinations lay that way, he cut off his head on the terrace of his neighbor's house, and left his body, which was a disgrace to the expanse of creation, in that spot, and taking his deed of manumission and the bag of dínárs, he set off for Isfahan, and took up his residence in that abode of peace. The next day they found the malevolent merchant lying slain on the terrace of the good man. Thereupon, they seized the latter and detained him in prison. However, as the murder of the accursed envious man was not proved according to law against him, and the majority of the notables and other inhabitants of Baghdád gave their testimony to his virtuous and blameless conduct, no one opposed his acquittal. Still they did not remove his fetters, and he remained for some time imprisoned in the same manner. After an interval, a merchant of distinction saw the slave in Isfahan, who asked about the family of his master, and also about the neighbor's. In the midst of the conversation, they came to speak of that good man and his imprisonment. The slave said, 'A strange and cruel injustice has been inflicted on that innocent person. The fact is, the thing was done by me at the command and order of my master, and that holy man is quite ignorant of the whole transaction." He then detailed all the circumstances, and the rich merchant took a number of persons to witness what he had said; and, on their return to Baghdád, they recounted the story of what had taken place, and the particulars of what had occurred. Thus that true believer obtained his release, and the envious man became a mark for the arrow of execration; while his pious neighbor uttered, with the tongue of his circumstances, this exulting stanza, which is the produce of the mind of an eminent personage, STANZA. 'Some rude ones, moved with envy, on my name Did slanderous breathe, and their foul falsehoods, like A forge, made hot. In error's night, the same Did, with fraud's bow and envy's arrow, strike The hair of selfish aims. Yet to me came From all their labors good in place of ill, While their bad deeds were worse rewarded still.' And I have adduced this story in order that the king may condescend to perceive what actions are done by envious men, and when their feelings towards one another are such, how can birds high in the air, and fishes down in the sea, and beasts in the expanse of the wild plain, be safe from the assaults of the malevolent? And those of thy attendants are not far to seek, who are now inferior to Farísah in dignity, and before held a more honorable position than he does, who have probably contrived a scheme against him, and stir up this treason to degrade him. Pause in thy haste and in these precipitate measures, and adopt a merciful and dignified procedure, and deliberate well in this affair, planning its remedy in a manner becoming thy greatness. Since to-day thou hast pulled in the reins of punishment, and to-morrow the real state of the case will be known and its details understood, one of two things must follow. If he was not worthy of death thou hast exercised a merciful intervention in his behalf, and not impressed on the volume of thy acts innocent blood. While if, in fact, he deserves to be slain, the option is left and there is no excuse for delaying his punishment. Thou mayst the live man put to death; but, slain, The Lion listened to the words of his mother, and having weighed them in the scales of reason, perceived that they contained advice free from selfish ends, and admonition adorned with the ornament of benevolence. He delayed the punishment and commanded them to bring Farísah into the presence, and having summoned him to a private audience, said, ‘I have tried thee before and seen and approved thy qualities and dispositions, and thy words find more acceptance with me than the speeches of thy enemies and of those who envy thee. Return again to the discharge of thy duties, and as to what thou hast said or heard in what has taken place, grieve not over it nor think of it.' Farísah said, 'Although the king has spread the shade of his favor on the head of my condition, and manifested towards me all the bounty that kings can evince, nevertheless, I cannot emerge from the chagrin of this calumny, save when the king thinks of a remedy and devises an expedient, that the real truth of the affair and the exact state of the case may be known. Notwithstanding that I am assured of my own perfect honesty, and have the most perfect security in the verdict of acquittal, which my own heart supplies, yet the more cautious the scrutiny your majesty may be pleased to use, the more apparent will be my sincerity and uprightness. And I know that my advantage and welfare is bound up in this matter. COUPLET. Grieve not, my heart! for gibes of envious men ; There may be good here if thou look'st again.' Kámjúí said, 'In what manner can inquiry be made? and by what expedient can the investigation be carried on?' Farísah replied, 'The parties who made the false accusation must be brought hither, and your majesty must, in the way of searching inquiry, demand of them what they meant by accusing me in particular of this treason, when I have not eaten flesh for years, and passing over those who eat flesh and cannot do without it. And assuredly when the king is urgent in inquiring into this point, they will give the true account of it. And if they are contentious, by terrifying them with threats of punishment, intelligence may be obtained of the particulars; or if that, too, fails, by holding out hopes of mercy and promising favors, the veil of doubt may be removed from the face of certainty; so that my innocence and unstained honor will be clear to all the court. COUPLET. Each secret that lies veiled beneath the night, When day appears, will all be brought to light.' Kámjúí said, 'I will inquire the state of the case of them by threatening them with punishment, not by promising them pardon and indulgence, for clemency must not be expended in the case of one who acknowledges malice and envy towards my confidant and trusted minister.' Farísah said, 'In all cases where pardon is bestowed by those invested with absolute authority and power, it is rightly bestowed, as it is said, 'Forgiveness is to be found with power.' The right method of action is, to pass over the offence of an adversary even when we have complete power over him. For the obtaining power over an adversary is an estimable blessing, and our gratitude for such a blessing can only be shewn by pardon and forgiveness of his fault. COUPLET. Has victory o'er a foe thy struggles blessed? Then by forgiveness be thy thanks expressed.' When Kámjúí had heard the words of Farísah, and beheld the marks of truth and right counsel impressed on the pages of those words; he sent separately for each of those parties who had stirred up this dust of mischief, and used the most strenuous exertions, even to the limit of excess, to discover what was concealed, and to develope the intricate points. Moreover he urged them much, with the promise that, if they would state the truth, the pages of their offences should be washed with the water of forgiveness; and, in addition, they should also be rewarded with honors and gifts |