e in winter. It is clear that
indigence and tranquillity can never go together, nor have fruition and
want the same aspect: the one had composed himself for prayer, and the
other sat anxious, and thinking on his supper; how then could this ever
come in competition with that? The lord of plenty has his mind fixed on
God; when a man's fortune is bankrupt, so is his heart:--accordingly,
the devotion of the rich is more acceptable at the temple of God,
because their thoughts are present and collected, and their minds not
absent and distracted; for they have laid up the conveniences of good
living, and digested at their leisure their scriptural quotations (for
prayer). The Arabs say: '_God preserve us from overwhelming poverty; and
from the company of him whom he loves not, namely, the infidel_':--And
there is a tradition of the prophet--that '_poverty has a gloomy aspect
in this world and in the next_!'"

My antagonist said: "Have you not heard what the blessed prophet has
declared?--'_poverty is my glory!_'" I replied: "Be silent, for the
allusion of the Lord of both worlds applies to such as are heroes in the
field of resignation, and the devoted victims of their fate, and not to
those who put on the garb of piety, that they may entitle themselves to
the bread of charity. O noisy drum! thou art nothing but an empty sound;
unprovided with the means, what canst thou effect on the last day of
account? If thou art a man of spirit, turn thy face away from begging
charity from thy fellow-creature; and keep not repeating thy rosary of a
thousand beads. Being without divine knowledge, a dervish, or poor man,
rests not till his poverty settles into infidelity; for _he that is poor
is well-nigh being an infidel_:--nor is it practicable, unless through
the agency of wealth, to clothe the naked, and to liberate the prisoner
from jail: how then can such mendicants as we are aspire to their
dignity; or what comparison is there between the arm of the lofty and
the hand of the abject? Do you not perceive that the glorious and great
God announces, in the holy book of the Koran, xxviii, the enjoyments of
the blessed in Paradise?--that '_to this community, namely, the orthodox
Mussulmans, a provision is allotted_';--in order that you may
understand that such as are solely occupied in looking after their daily
subsistence are excluded from this portion of the blessed; and that the
property of present enjoyment is sanctioned under the seal of