earth, coming to perfection like a young shoot, produced fresh fruits in abundance; and the auspiciousness of whose proceedings in husbandry went to that point, that every clod upon which he set his foot, yielded com without his requiring to sow seed; COUPLET. For him, the orchard freshening showers made wet, And, self-prepared, the field his wishes met;) became their comrade; and by those four pillars thus united, the edifice of companionship received its completion and the maxim, The best company is four,' was elucidated. So the attached friends having forgotten-through the pleasure of intercourse-their regrets for their kin and country, were traveling on divers stages and journeys, and continued cheerful and content with the sight of one another. DISTICHS. To those who sit with friends and loved ones near, What blest results their blended beams unfold! After traversing a vast distance, they arrived at the city of Nustúr, and selected a good lodging in a corner of the town to repose and rest in. Not one of them had any provisions or supplies left, nor had they a single diram or dínár. One of the party said, 'Our advisable course at present is, that we should each display our skill and ability, and secure by our labor the good things we want, that we may pass some days in this city in comfort.' The Prince said, 'Affairs are dependent on the decrees of God, and no difference is effected in them by the exertions or toil of man. Wherefore, those who are the wisest among mankind will assuredly take no steps in pursuit of such a thing, nor devote their precious life for carrion, which in spite of its perishable nature, is surrounded by many enemies. STANZA. This world is to a carrion-carcase like, Round which a myriad vultures without pause A contest wage. These with their talons strike Those who, in turn, wound them with beak and claws. The daily subsistence, which has been apportioned in the fabric, We distributed their necessary provision among them in this present life,' is not to be augmented by the aid of greediness and avidity, and all that the covetous man obtains is disaster and disgrace. DISTICHS. What though we gather many a morsel-still More than fate grants will ne'er our stomach fill. For that which is withheld by destiny? Put greed aside; live peaceful, happy, so.' The handsome youth said, 'Beauty is a qualification which can be relied on for obtaining good things, and comeliness is a sure source of acquiring property and opulence. Whenever the J of Jamál (beauty) displays itself, it will be followed by Mal (wealth); and at all times that the Z of Zarafat (gracefulness) appears, Ráfat (tenderness) and kindness will be sure to be joined to it. COUPLET. The man of handsome face, do what he will, Has in his path all eyes fixed on him still.' The merchant's son also read off an inscription from the page of his condition, and said, 'The capital of beauty is a coin of short endurance in the bázár of affairs, and in a short time nothing is left either of principal or interest. Right judgment and the advantages of judicious counsel, and experience and skill in transacting business, have the precedence of all other goods; and whenever the foot of subsistence stumbles against the stone of want, the results of good sense alone can afford a remedy; and whoever has nought left to support himself, can alleviate his wants only by the assistance of expertness in his dealings. COUPLET. If thou dost all thy acts on prudence base, Thou mayest then thy goods securely place.' The young peasant delivered himself as follows, 'Good sense and prudence do not succeed everywhere, nor does advantage always result therefrom. For if wisdom had much to do with the acquisition of fortune, it must needs follow, that whoever surpassed all others in knowledge and was before the rest of mankind in judgment and prudence, would set up the flag of his success in the plain of empire, and that the young tree of his felicity would be planted beside the rivulet of sovereign power. Yet we have seen wise men enough incarcerated in the prison of want, and have watched many who 1 Kur'an, Ch. xliii., 31; Sale, p. 362, 1. 32: We distribute their necessary provision among them in this present life, and we raise some of them several degrees above the others, that the one of them may take the other to serve him and the mercy of thy Lord is more valuable than the riches which they gather together.' had not the slightest scent from the rose-garden of ability and expertness, yet walking at free-will and enjoying themselves among the parterres of wealth and opulence. Hence they have said, COUPLET. 'Heaven on the worthless fool bestows the reins of earthly bliss: Wisdom and virtue hast thou both? See, then, thy crime in this !' Wherefore the blessings of application, and the happy influences of toil, bring men to a position of success and enjoyment; and it is by the means of skill in their profession, and the advantage of knowledge of their craft, that they are decked with the ornaments of delight and felicity. VERSE. Wouldst thou have gold, then labor on; By knowledge only thou 'lt in nought succeed. Stands of the coin of laboring men in need.' When it came to the Prince's turn again to speak, they requested him, saying, 'Do you, too, be pleased to address us once more in elucidation of this subject, and throw some light on this question which we are discussing.' The Prince responded, COUPLET. 'By me content and poverty shall ne'er disparaged be; Go tell the king, 'Thy daily food is portioned e'en to thee!' I adhere to the same opinion, of the particulars of which I have already given a notion. I do not, indeed, deny the justness of what you, comrades, say, that something may be gained by the ornament of beauty and the capital of good sense and toil. But what I assert is this, that if the comeliness of fate's decree does not display itself from behind the curtain, the radiant star of beauty cannot ascend from the horizon of success; and that until the Curator, Providence, opens the door of the shop of the Divine will, the goods of knowledge and ability cannot obtain any currency in the market of acceptance. The advantage of the table of labor is a morsel which it is in the discretion of Providence to apportion or not to the skilful; and the gain of trade and agriculture is the ear of corn of a provision which accrues to the husbandmen of the field of craft only from the stock of the will of the Eternal One. And, without the Divine decree, every writing that versicolor Fancy draws on the tablet of thought, in the end receives the impression of decay, and every spell that the incantation-reader of the counsel employs, at last assumes the semblance of an idle dream. COUPLET. What arts I used, what arts without avail! The spells I breathed passed idly down the gale. Wherefore it is clearly established that if the Most High God wills it the wish of every person will be attained without toil or trouble. But if the Eternal Purpose is not linked with its accomplishment, labor and struggles are altogether unavailing. Consequently we ought to bow our necks to God's commandment, and place the head of resignation on the line of destiny. HEMISTICH. Our cure for fate is t' acquiesce-enough! And just in this way that aged Farmer committed his affairs to God's grace, and in a short time, having acquired his wish, was liberated from the prison of trouble.' The Prince's comrades inquired, 'How was that?' STORY II. The Prince said, 'They have related that in the city of Andalús1 there was a Farmer with an open hand and heart, who was successful in his agricultural occupations. Once on a time his receipts exceeded his disbursements, and he got together three hundred gold dínárs, and was very much delighted with that amount of money, and took care not to lay out a particle of it in his expenses. Every day he took out his well-stuffed purse, and counted the pieces, and made the lip of enjoyment smile with that mirthaugmenting saffron-colored coin. One day in his wonted manner, having counted his gold, he had put it back in the purse, and was about to deposit it in a secure place, when an intimate friend came to the door and called to him. The Farmer, through fear lest he should come in and become acquainted with that glittering-faced bride, (which, in accordance with the direction, Hide thy gold!' ought to be kept under the veil of concealment,) did not wait to secure it, but took it up and flung it into a pitcher, and set out with his friend to the village on account of a matter of importance, strictly charging his wife as he started to get ready a meal for them. As soon as the Farmer had gone, his wife wanted to cook some broth. Seeing the pitcher empty she took it up and went to the door and stood looking out for an acquaintance to pass by. It happened that the village butcher going to the city to buy a cow passed that spot. The Farmer's wife recognised him, and asked him civilly if Andalús, (that is, Spain,) so called by the Arabians, from Andalusia, the province which was first conquered in the year of the Hijrah 92 (A.D. 710), by Tárik bin Ziyad, under the Khalafat of Al Walid, the 13th successor to Muhammad. 2 Orientals use saffron in many drinks and pleasant beverages. Thus the Amirs of Sindh, who quaffed bowls of milk daily, colored the milk with saffron. he would undertake the trouble of bringing a little water for her, by which he would, at the same time, oblige an old friend, and secure the merit of assisting one in a difficulty. The villager agreed, and the farmer's wife gave him the pitcher in which was the purse of gold. The butcher put it on his back, and went to fetch the water. On the way he perceived something move in the pitcher, and on examining it, saw the purse. Forth with, drawing it delightedly into the sleeve of possession, he exclaimed, COUPLET. 'Faith that is luck which, without effort, to our fond embraces yields; Thanks, grateful thanks to God (may His glory be magnified!) that without the annoyance of trouble, and the calamity of hardship and suffering, an abundant blessing and complete opulence have been bestowed on me. I must now think it right to show my sense of this unexpected good-fortune, and not abandon my profession, but store up this gold for a day of emergency.' Then, through delight at getting the gold, he forgot all about the water and the pitcher, and having purchased a fat young heifer with the money that he had of his own, he set out home. As soon as he had got out of the city, he thought to himself, 'If I keep this purse about me, I cannot be secure from the dread of thieves; and if I bury it anywhere in this city I shall never be able to breathe at ease, from anxiety of mind and troublous thoughts; and I have not sufficient confidence in any one to be able to confide this to him as a deposit. HEMISTICH. Seek not in this age for good faith, for it exists nowhere. My best course is to put the purse in the Cow's throat and manage to make it swallow it, and after I have slaughtered it I will take out safely my purse of gold.' He then put the unfortunate cow to that torture, and made it like Sámiríy's' calf, full of golden treasure, and turned his face homeward. It befell that the son met him on the road, and told him some other things which had occurred in the village, and which the butcher was to 1 See Sale's Translation of the Kur'an, p. 6, note k: 'The person who cast this calf (the same which is spoken of in Exodus) the Mohammedans say was not Aaron, but Al Sâmeri, one of the principal men among the children of Israel, some of whose descendants, it is pretended, still inhabit an island of that name in the Arabian Gulf. It was made of the rings and bracelets of gold and silver, and other materials, which the Israelites had borrowed of the Egyptians; for Aaron, who commanded in his brother's absence, having ordered Al Sâmeri to collect those ornaments from the people, who carried on a wicked commerce with them, and, to keep them together till the return of Moses, Al Sâmeri, understanding the founder's art, put them together into a furnace, to melt them down into one mass, which came out in the form of a calf. The Israelites, accustomed to the Egyptian idolatry, paying a religious worship to this image, Al Sâmeri went further, and took some dust from the footsteps of the horse of the angel Gabriel, who marched at the head of the people, and threw it into the mouth of the calf, which immediately began to low, and became animated; for such was the virtue of that dust. One writer says that all the Israclites adored this calf, except only 12,000.' |