Art rid of thy disease, my friend? Then set aside The vinegar. Rejoice thy soul with honey’s tide. When freed from lusts, the heart of man in full health shines. God said: “The Merciful on heaven’s high throne reclines.”[400] God rules the heart direct, free from all means to aid, So soon as it is purged from dross that low it laid. We’ll now go back to Zeyd, and proffer him advice; We’ll warn him not to risk dishonour, paltering’s price. Thou shalt not Zeyd now find; he’s surely run away, He’s clean absconded by the door; had naught to say. 170 Had’st thou been Zeyd, like him thou’dst lost been in a maze; As stars die out when sunlight sets the skies ablaze. E’en as no track points out where was galaxy’s place; Thou’lt find no signs of Zeyd, no footstep, sign, or trace. Our senses falter, all our reasoning is lost, In splendour of the wisdom of th’ All-Ruling Ghost. Men’s senses, and their reasons, must be shut within, “In waves when all before us to appear begin.”[401] When night returns, the sky again a court appears, The hidden stars shine forth, and mark the rolling years. 175 The senseless dead unto, will God their wits restore; In circles, like attendants, Him they’ll stand before. They’ll foot the dance, they’ll spread their hands, they’ll shout His praise; They’ll sing their song: “Thou, Lord, us from the dead didst raise.” Their mortal skins and bones they’ll shake off in the earth; On angel-wings they’ll ride, and whirlwind-dust call forth. Their course they’ll take from nullity to entity, In judgment day, ungrateful, grateful laity. Why turn away thy head, pretend not to have seen? Hast thou not, first, in nullity, a truant been? 180 In nullity, so firm thou settedst down thy foot, And ask’dst: “Who shall remove me when I’ve taken root?” Dost thou not see the wondrous works of God’s high will? How He it is who “leads thee by thy forelock” still?[402] He draws thee into states, conditions, turns of weal, That never entered in thy mind to seek with zeal. Nonentity obedient is to His command. Of demon, and of Solomon, He rules the hand. A demon can contrive “the trays of fishpond size.”[403] He dares not make refusal these to organise. 185 Contemplate now thyself in agony of fear; And know, nonentity, too, quakes His wrath to hear. Thou stretchest forth thy hand to seize preferment’s place; From fear of thee, some soul itself must quick efface. All else but love of God, the Truest and the Best, Though sweet to thought, is but a snare to break thy rest. What’s all thy effort worth? Thou hast to die at last; Put out thy hand and grasp the cup of life right fast.