A learned man who has got into an argument with the ignorant can have no hopes of supporting his own dignity; and if an ignoramus by his loquacity gets the upper hand it should not surprise us, for he is a stone and can bruise a gem:--No wonder if his spirit flag; the nightingale is cooped up in the same cage with the crow:--If the man of sense is coarsely treated by the vulgar, let it not excite our wrath and indignation; if a piece of worthless stone can bruise a cup 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