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