The imperative duty of active benevolence is thus inculcated: "Bestow thy gold and thy wealth while they are thine; for when thou art gone they will be no longer in thy power. Distribute thy treasure readily to-day, for to-morrow the key may be no longer in thy hand. Exert thyself to cast a covering over the poor, that God's own veil may be a covering to thee." In the following passage the man of learning and virtue is contrasted with the stupid and ignorant blockhead: "If a wise man, falling into company with mean people, does not get credit for his discourse, be not surprised, for the sound of the harp cannot overpower the noise of the drum, and the fragrance of ambergris is overcome by fetid garlic. The ignorant fellow was proud of his loud voice, because he had impudently confounded the man of understanding. If a jewel falls in the mud it is still the same precious stone,[20] and if dust flies up to the sky it retains its original baseness. A capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away. Sugar obtains not its value from the cane, but from its innate quality. Musk has fragrance of itself, and not from being called a perfume by the druggist. The wise man is like the druggist's chest, silent, but full of virtues; while the blockhead resembles the warrior's drum, noisy, but an empty prattler. A wise man in the company of those who are ignorant has been compared by the sages to a beautiful girl in the company of blind men, and to the Kuran in the house of an infidel."--The old proverb that "an evil bird has an evil egg" finds expression by Saadi thus: "No one whose origin is bad ever catches the reflection of the good." Again, he says: "How can we make a good sword out of bad iron? A worthless person cannot by education become a person of any worth." And yet again: "Evil habits which have taken root in one's nature will only be got rid of at the hour of death." [20] Is such a thing as an emerald made worse than it was if it is not praised?--_Marcus Aurelius_. If glass be used to decorate a crown, While gems are taken to bedeck a foot, 'Tis not that any fault lies in the gem, But in the want of knowledge of the setter. --_Panchatantra_, a famous Indian book of Fables. Firdausi, the Homer of Persia (eleventh century), has the following remarks in his scathing satire on the sultan Mahmud, of Ghazni (Atkinson's rendering): Alas! from vice can goodness ever spring? Is mercy hoped for in a tyrant king? Can water wash the Ethiopian white? Can we remove the darkness from the night? The tree to which a bitter fruit is given Would still be bitter in the bowers of heaven; And a bad heart keeps on its vicious course, Or, if it changes, changes for the worse; Whilst streams of milk where Eden's flow'rets blow Acquire more honied sweetness as they flow.