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