Providence:--to the thirsty it will seem in their dreams as if the face
of the earth were wholly a fountain. You may everywhere observe that,
instigated by his appetites, a person who has suffered hardship and
tasted bitterness will engage in dangerous enterprises; and, indifferent
to the consequences, and unawed by future punishments, he will not
discriminate between what is lawful and what is forbid:--Should a clod
of earth be thrown at the head of a dog, he would jump up in joy, and
take it for a bone; or were two people carrying a corpse on a bier, a
greedy man would fancy it a tray of victuals. Whereas the worldly
opulent are regarded with the benevolent eye of Providence, and in their
enjoyments of what is lawful are preserved from things illegal. Having
thus detailed my arguments and adduced my proofs, I rely on your justice
for an equitable decree; whether you ever saw a felon with his arms
pinioned; a bankrupt immured in a jail; the veil of innocency rent, or
the arm mutilated for theft, unless in consequence of poverty: for
lion-like heroes, instigated by want, have been caught undermining
walls, and breaking into houses, and have got themselves suspended by
the heels. It is, moreover, possible that a poor man, urged to it by an
inordinate appetite, may feel desirous of gratifying his lust; and he
may fall the victim of some accursed sin. And of the manifold means of
mental tranquillity and corporeal enjoyment which are the special lots
of the opulent, one is that every night they can command a fresh
mistress, and every day possess a new charmer, such as must excite the
envy of the glorious dawn, and stick the foot of the stately cypress in
the mire of shame:--'She had dipped her hands in the blood of her
lovers, and tinged the tips of her fingers with jujubes':--so that it
were impossible, with such lovely objects before their eyes, for them to
desire what is forbidden or to wish to commit sin:--Why should such a
heart as the houris, or nymphs of Paradise, have captivated and
plundered, show any way partial to the idols of Yaghma (a city in
Turkestan famous for its beauties)?--_He who has in both his hands such
dates as he can relish, will not think of throwing stones at the bunches
of dates on their trees_. In common, such as are in indigent
circumstances will contaminate the skirt of innocency with sin; and such
as are suffering from hunger will steal bread:--When a ravenous dog has
found a piece of meat, he