of gold, its
worth is not increased, nor that of the gold diminished.

* * * * *

LX

Genius without education is the subject of our regret, and education
without genius is labor lost. Although embers have a lofty origin (fire
being of a noble nature), yet, as having no intrinsic worth, they fall
upon a level with common dust; on the other hand, sugar does not derive
its value from the cane, but from its own innate quality:--Inasmuch as
the disposition of Canaan was bad, his descent from the prophet Noah
stood him in no stead. Pride thyself on what virtue thou hast, and not
on thy parentage; the rose springs from a thorn-bush, and Abraham from
Azor (neither his father's name, or fire).

LXI

That is musk which discloses itself by its smell, and not what the
perfumers impose upon us:--If a man be expert in any art he needs not
tell it, for his own skill will show it.

LXII

A wise man is, like a vase in a druggist's shop, silent, but full of
virtues; and the ignorant man resembles the drum of the warrior, being
full of noise, and an empty babbler:--The sincerely devout have remarked
that a learned man beset by the illiterate is like one of the lovely in
a circle of the blind, or the holy Koran in the dwelling of the infidel.

LXIII

A friend whom they take an age to conciliate, it were wrong all at once
to alienate:--In a series of years a stone changes into a ruby; take
heed, and destroy it not at once by dashing it against another stone.

LXIV

Reason is in like manner enthralled by passion, as an uxorious man is in
the hands of an artful woman. Thou may'st shut the door of joy upon that
dwelling where thou hearest resounding the scolding voice of a woman.

LXV

Intellect, without firmness, is craft and chicanery; and firmness,
without intellect, perverseness and obstinacy:--First, prudence, good
sense, and discrimination, and then dominion; for the dominion and good
fortune of the ignorant are the armor of rebellion against God.

LXVI

The sinner who spends and gives away is better than the devotee who begs
and lays by.

LXVII

Whoever foregoes carnal indulgence in order to get the good opinion of
mankind, has forsaken a lawful passion and involved himself in what is
forbidden:--What, wretched creature! can that hermit see in his own
tarnished mirror, or heart, who retires to a cell, but not for the sake
of God?

LXIX

A wise man should not