Only those who have experienced danger can rightly appreciate the advantages of safety, and according as a man has become acquainted with adversity does he recognise the value of prosperity--a sentiment which Saadi illustrates by the story of a boy who was in a vessel at sea for the first time, in which were also the king and his officers of state. The lad was in great fear of being drowned, and made a loud outcry, in spite of every effort of those around him to soothe him into tranquility. As his lamentations annoyed the king, a sage who was of the company offered to quiet the terrified youth, with his majesty's permission, which being granted, he caused the boy to be plunged several times in the sea and then drawn up into the ship, after which the youth retired to a corner and remained perfectly quiet. The king inquired why the lad had been subjected to such roughness, to which the sage replied: "At first he had never experienced the danger of being drowned, neither had he known the safety of a ship." One of our English moralists has remarked that the man who chiefly prides himself on his ancestry is like a potato-plant, whose best qualities are under ground. Saadi tells us of an old Arab who said to his son: "O my child, in the day of resurrection they will ask you what you have done in the world, and not from whom you are descended."--In the _Akhlak-i-Jalaly_, a work comprising the practical philosophy of the Muhammedans, written, in the 15th century, in the Persian language, by Fakir Jani Muhammed Asaad, and translated into English by W. F. Thompson, Ali, the Prophet's cousin, is reported to have said: My soul is my father, my title my worth; A Persian or Arab, there's little between: Give me him for a comrade, whatever his birth, Who shows what _he is_--not what _others have been_. An Arabian poet says: Be the son of whom thou wilt, try to acquire literature, The acquisition of which may make pedigree unnecessary to thee; Since a man of worth is he who can say, "I am so and so," Not he who can only say, "My father was so and so." And again: Ask not a man who his father was, but make trial Of his qualities, and then conciliate or reject him accordingly For it is no disgrace to new wine, if it only be sweet, As to its taste, that it was the juice [or daughter] of sour grapes. The often-quoted maxim of La Rochefoucauld, that there is something in the misfortunes of our friends which affords us a degree of secret pleasure, is well known to the Persians. Saadi tells us of a merchant who, having lost a thousand dinars, cautioned his son not to mention the matter to anyone, "in order," said he, "that we may not suffer two misfortunes--the loss of our money and the secret satisfaction of our neighbours."