the wicked! The virtuous have al-actions are from the celestial world. ready been blessed by Thee, in be- 9 Be very scrupulous to observe ing virtuous. the truth in all things. SELECTION II. 10 Seek truth by thought, not by searching for it in mouldy books. Look up to the sky to see the moon, instead of seeking for it in Pure hearts, humane deeds, and spiritual life in God combine to prepare man for a happy death, and for blessed re-unions and the pond. joys beyond. II Once upon a time the fishes of THE man who has constantly con- a certain river took counsel together, tended against evil, morally and said: They tell us that our and physically, outwardly and in- life and being is from the water; but wardly, may fearlessly meet death; we have never seen water, and we well assured that radiant Spirits will know not what it is. Then some lead him across the luminous bridge among them, wiser than the rest, into a paradise of eternal happi ness. 2 Souls risen from the graves will know each other, and say: That is my father, or my brother, my wife, or my sister. said: We have heard that there dwelleth in the sea a very wise and learned fish, who knoweth all things. Let us journey to him, and ask him to show us water, or explain to us what water is. So several of them 3 The wicked will say to the good: set out on their travels, and came Wherefore, when I was in the world at last to the sea wherein the sage did you not teach me to act right- fish dwelt. On hearing their queseously? O ye pure ones, it is because tion, he replied,— you did not instruct me, that I am excluded from the assembly of the blest. 4 Setting out on thy soul's pilgrimage, unite to thyself what hearts thou canst. Know well that a hundred holy temples of Mecca have not the value of a heart. 5 He needs no other rosary whose thread of life is strung with beads of love and thought. 6 He must be a low-minded man who can pray to God for terrestrial goods. 7 The best way of worshipping God is in allaying the distress of the times, and improving the condition of mankind. 8 All good thoughts, words, and O ye who seek to solve the knot! Ye live in God, yet know Him not. 12 Once when some pilgrims journeyed to Mecca, they found themselves in a fruitless valley, beholding the Kaaba, a lofty house of stone. They sought with zeal to find God, but they found him not. Long they encircled the house of stone with their march, when a voice from within was heard saying: Why stand ye here to worship stone? Go and worship in God's true house,—the house of truth, home of the heart; blessed is he who enters there! One of them, leaving the desert, made a pilgrimage to his own home, and found it a temple. 13 Brave heart, arise! Be free from every chain, though it be glittering To use your hands in making mortar with gold. Be nobly courageous! of quicklime is preferable to folding Follow the true bride of thy life, them on your breast in attendance even if her name be sorrow. Let the upon a king. shell perish, that the pearl may ap pear. 14 O man! who art the universe in little, cease for a moment from thy absorption in loss and gain. Take one draught from the hands of Him who offers the cup of creation to thy lips; and so free thyself from the cares of this world and anxiety about another. 15 The temple I frequent is the torquoise dome of the sky. I sell my rosary and all the holy names around it, for that wine which fills creation's cup. 16 The earth is all enchanted ground. With its light and shadow, its ebb and flow, it is all Thine, thou Supreme Wisdom! 17 Behold the morning! Rise up, O youth, and quickly fill thyself with the rosy wine sparkling in the cup of creation! 18 Look upon yon bush flaming with roses, like the burning bush of Moses! Listen! If thy soul be not deaf, thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord speaking to thee, softly and clearly, from out that bush. 2 True greatness, whether in spiritual or worldly matters, does not shrink from minute details of business, but regards their performance as acts of divine worship. 3 Contend constantly against evil, morally and physically, internally and externally. Strive in every way to diminish the power of evil. 4 The entire world shall be populous with that action of thine which saves one soul from despair. 5 The liberal man who eats and bestows is better than the pious man who fasts and hoards. 6 Haughty thoughts and thirst of gold are sins. 7 Take not that which belongs to another. 8 Do as you would be done by. 9 Avoid every thing calculated to injure others. Have no companionship with a man who injures his neighbor. 10 Do not allow thyself to be carried away by anger. Angry words and scornful looks are sins. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness. Opposition to peace is a sin. II Always meet petulance with gentleness, and perverseness with 19 The roses live on dew and sunshine direct from heaven. They never inquire concerning Moses. Why kindness. A gentle hand can lead should you? even an elephant by a hair. 12 Treat old age with great rever、 ence and tenderness. 13 Let us be such as help the life of the future. 14 Immodest looks are sins. think evil is a sin. Τα 15 Avoid licentiousness, because it is one of the readiest means to give Evil Spirits power over body and soul. 16 Strive, therefore, to keep pure in body and mind, and thus prevent the entrance of Evil Spirits, who are always trying to gain possession of men. SELECTION IV. 9 King Nowshirvan, being at a hunting-seat, wished to have some game cooked, and there was no salt. A servant, who was sent to a village to procure some, was ordered to pay the price, lest the exaction of salt from the villagers should become a custom. They said to him, What harm could come from such Diligence, justice, and pity commended. a trifle ? He replied, OppresCULTIVATE the soil, drain sion was brought into the world marshes, and destroy danger- from small beginnings, which every ous creatures. 2 He who sows the ground with diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by ten thousand prayers in idleness. 3 Indulge not in slothful sleep, lest the duties and good works which it is necessary for thee to do remain undone. new-comer increased. If a king were to take a single apple from a peasant's garden, his retainers would pull up the whole tree. If the Sultan seized five eggs, his soldiers would spit a thousand hens. IO He who is indifferent to the welfare of others does not deserve to be called a man. SELECTION V. 4 Be diligent and discreet; eat of thine own regular industry, and The wisdom which consists in love, form a portion for God and the helpfulness toward others, and kindness good. Diligence in thy occupation to all forms of life commended. is the greatest good work. 5 The sheep are not for the shepherd; but the shepherd is for the service of the sheep. 6 The rain, in whose nature there is no partiality, produces tulips in the garden, but only weeds in a barren soil. A sterile soil will not produce spikenard; therefore waste not seed upon it. 7 To show favor to the wicked is in fact doing injury to the good. Pardoning oppressors is injuring the oppressed. 8 When you connect yourself with base men, and show them favor, they commit crimes with the power you give them, whereby you participate in their guilt. A CERTAIN man quitted a mon astery, and became a member of a college. One asked him what was the difference between religious men and learned men, that had induced him to change his associates. He replied: The devotee tries to save his own blanket from the waves, and the learned man endeavors to rescue others from drowning. 2 The children of Adam are members of one another, and are all produced from the same substance. When the world gives pain to one member, the others suffer uneasiness. 3 To enjoy the benefits of Providence is wisdom; to enable others to enjoy them is virtue. 4 Tell me, gentle traveller, who animals. The consequence of this hast wandered through the world, was that nobody observed the treaty, and seen the sweetest roses blow, except the harmless animals. and the brightest gliding rivers,- 9 If you do not realize the state of all thine eyes have seen, which of the ant under your foot, know is the fairest land? Shall I tell that it resembles your own condithee, child, where Nature is most tion under the foot of an elephant. blest and fair? It is where those whom we love abide. The space may be small, but it is more ample than kingdoms; it may be a desert, but through it runs the river of Paradise, and there are the enchanted bowers. 5 One proof of man's superiority is his knowledge; whereby he rises from a low position to an exalted station. Knowledge has a root and branches. Animals have merely the branch; men alone have the root, which consisteth in the teachings of wisdom. 6 The heart of man attaineth selfpossession, and so effecteth a union with the soul; and by means of knowledge it is elevated to the glorious nature of angels. 7 But men, by slaying each other, and killing animals, resemble beasts of prey rather than angels. 10 Multiply domestic animals, nourish them, and treat them gently. SELECTION VI. Bigotry condemned, toleration enjoined; the revelations, providence, and pity of God shown to be universal. HAVE the religions of mankind no common ground? Is there not everywhere the same enrapturing beauty, beaming forth from many thousand hidden places? Broad indeed is the carpet which God has spread, and beautiful the colors He has given it. There is but one Lamp in this house, in the rays of which, wherever I look, a bright assembly meets me. 2 Seest thou two or three imbeciles who hold the world between their two hands, and who in their ignorance believe themselves the wisest of the universe? Be not disturbed that they regard all as heretics who are not simpletons. 3 The Holy One will ever be the same, The God of all, though oft invoked by many a different name. 8 The Prophet of the World said: We deem it sinful to kill harmless animals, but we consider it right to destroy ravenous animals. If all ravenous animals will enter into a compact not to kill harmless animals, we will abstain from slaying them, and will hold them as dear as ourselves. Upon this, the wolf made a treaty with the ram, and the lion entered into friendly rela- 5 Every prophet, whom I send, tions with the stag. And there was goeth forth to establish religion, not no more tyranny in the world, till to pull it up. man broke the treaty by killing 4 The paths to God are more in number than the breathings of created beings. 6 Each prophet that appears is not to be opposed to his predeces- "In the name of God !" but the aged sors, nor yet complacently to exalt guest uttered no word. Abraham his law. said: Old man, when thou eatest food, is it not right to repeat the name of God? The stranger replied, My custom is that of the Fire Wor 7 O God! whatever road I take joins the highway that leads to Thee. 8 One night Gabriel from his seat shippers. Then Abraham arose in in paradise heard the voice of God | wrath, and drove the aged man from sweetly responding to a human his house. But even as he did so, heart. The angel said, Surely this a swift-winged Spirit stood before must be an eminent servant of the the patriarch and said: Abraham! Most High, whose spirit is dead to for a hundred years hath the divine lust and lives on high. The angel bounty flowed out to this man in hastened over land and sea to find sunshine and rain, in bread and life. this man, but could not find him in Is it fit for thee to withhold thy the earth or heavens. At last he hand from him, because his worship exclaimed, O Lord! show me the is not thine? way to this object of Thy love. God answered, Turn thy steps to yon village, and in that pagoda thou shalt behold him. The angel sped to the pagoda, and therein found a solitary man kneeling before an idol. Returning, he cried, O Master of the world! hast Thou looked with on earth are in punishment, and the virtlove on a man who invokes an idol uous here and everywhere are blessed. 10 Diversity of worship has divided the human race into seventy-two nations. From all their dogmas I have selected one,-Divine Love. SELECTION VII. Death not to be feared; the wicked even in a pagoda? God said, I consider DEATH is certain to all things which are subject to birth, and not the error of ignorance: this heart, amid its darkness, hath the regeneration to all things which are highest place. mortal. Wherefore it doth not behoove thee to grieve about that which is inevitable. 2 Think not that I fear the world, nor my departure from it. Death being a fact, I have no fear of it. That which I alone fear is not having lived well enough. 9 Abraham would scarcely break his fast for a week, lest some hungry traveller might pass who needed his store. Daily he looked out upon the desert, and one day he beheld an aged man, with hair white as snow, tottering toward his door. "Guest of mine eyes!" exclaimed 3 In mosque and school, in church Abraham, "enter with welcome, and and synagogue, they have a horror be pleased to share my bread and of hell, and a seeking of paradise; salt." The stranger entered, and the but the seed of this anxiety has place of honor was given to him. never germinated in the heart that When the family gathered round has penetrated the secret of the Most the board, each one of them said, High |