bearing a verse. He doesn’t say in their presence “My drawstring came undone” or “I’ve got jock itch because my package is so big” or scratch his anus or weigh his “yardarm” in his hand, or stretch, loll, sprawl, extend his body, lie at full length, elongate himself, protract himself, lounge, drape himself, lie flat on his face, extend his arms to their full length, spread himself out, or flop vacantly around. On the contrary, he speaks to them politely and respectfully, averting his gaze and lowering his voice, and he asks the eldest among them what news, stories, and edifying anecdotes have come her way that day, or he mentions that he has commenced that very day the composition of a beneficial book that will make comprehensive mention of the antiquities left by the ancients and their histories, and then puts some literary puzzle to the youngest of them to keep her entertained. Such things ensure that he is honored on his arrival and praised on his departure.
4.1.14
وبخلاف ما اذا قلت لهم ايضا ان التاجر المثرى هناك لا يتختم بخواتم الماس والزمرّذ * ولا يتحلى بسلاسل الذهب * ولا يقتنى النادر من الاثاث والماعون والفرش * بل انما ينفق امواله فى سبيل البر واغاثة الملهوفين وامداد الارامل واليتامى * وفى انشآ المدارس والمستشفيات * وفى تصليح الطرق وتحسين المدينة وازالة الاوساخ والعفونات منها * وفى ان يربى ولده بالادب والعلم والفضائل * فترى منهم من سنّه اثنتا عشرة سنة يكلّمك بما يكلّمك به من سنّه منا اثنتا عشرة سنة بعد العشرين * وبخلاف ما اذا تفضلت بذكره فقلت ان لكل انسان عندهم ممن لا يعدّ من الاغنيآ والفقرآ خزانة كتب نفيسة فى كل فن وعلم * وما من بيت الا وفيه اضبارة من صحف * وان الرجل منهم اخبر بالبلاد الاجنبية من اهلها * وان اكثر فلاحيهم يقراون ويكتبون ويطالعون الوقائع اليومية ويعرفون الحقوق الرابطة بين المالك والممولك والحاكم والمحكوم وبين الرجل وامراته * وان من هذه الوقائع المطبوعة ما تبلغ عدة نسخه اربعة عشر مليونا فى العام * وما يدفع عليها لخزنة الدولة على طبع اجازتها يبلغ اكثر من خمسين الف ليرة * وانها لو عرّبت نسخة واحدة منها لجات اكثر من مائتى صفحة * وان صاحب العائلة منهم اذا جلس صباحا على المائدة مع زوجته واولاده يقبّل كلّا منهم ويسالهم عن صحتهم * ويفيدهم بعض نصائح وتنبيهات تكون لهم اِماما فى ذلك اليوم * وانهم يكلمونه وهم مبتهجون فرحون ويرون حضوره فيهم سلوانا * وانهم لا يخالفون له امرا ولا يستثقلون منه تكليفا * وهم مع ذلك يُدلّون عليه بالبنوّة ويهابونه للابوّة *
It would be different too if you were to tell them that the rich merchant there doesn’t wear diamond or emerald rings or adorn himself with gold chains or collect rare furniture, vessels, and carpets but spends his wealth instead on charity, assistance to the hard-pressed, and provision for widows and orphans, on building schools and hospitals, mending roads, and cleaning the city and clearing it of refuse and filth, as well as on educating his children in literature, science, and the virtues, as a result of which you find that from the age of twelve they can talk to you of matters that one of ours would not be able to talk to you about were he twelve plus twenty years of age. And it would be different too if you were to be so good as to mention that any person among them of a middling condition has a case of valuable books on every art and science and that there isn’t a house that doesn’t have a folder full of newspapers; that any man among them is better informed as to the conditions of foreign countries than are those countries’ own inhabitants; that most of their peasants can read and write and peruse the daily newspapers and are aware of the rights and obligations that govern the relationships between owner and owned, ruler and ruled, man and wife; that some of their printed newspapers run to fourteen million copies a year, that the sum paid to the state treasury for the printing of their licenses comes to more than fifty thousand lira, and that if a single issue of such a newspaper were translated into Arabic, it would come to two hundred pages; and that when a head of family there sits down to table in the morning with his wife and children, he kisses each, asks after his health, and provides him with profitable pieces of advice and caution to guide him through the coming day and they talk to him and are full of delight and joy, viewing his presence among them as a comfort, never disobeying his orders or thinking his demands upon them a burden yet acknowledging their status as his children and honoring him as children should a father.
4.1.15
فهذا وامثاله اصلحك الله ينبغى ان تشنّف به مسامع اصحابك الكرام * عسى ان ينشطوا الى انشآ مدرسة او ترجمة كتاب او لارسال ولدهم الى بلد يتادبون فيه بالاداب المحمودة والمناقب الكريمة * واياك ياسيدي من ان تميل قبل هذا كله الى ان تاخذ عن بعضهم الخصال الذميمة كالطيش والنزق والبخل والفسق والكبر ومد الرجلين فى وجه جليسك * فقد ذكرت لك آنفا ان البلاد التى تكثر فيها الفضائل تكثر فيها الرذائل ايضًا * وانه ليس من انسان الا وفيه عيب بل عيوب * غير انه ينبغى لكل منا ان لا يزال يجد ويسعى فى طريق الكمال وفى تهذيب اخلاقه وحواسه الباطنة بكل ما يبدو لحواسه الظاهرة * وكما ان لذة الحواس لا يشعر بها الانسان الا فى مقدَّم جسمه دون موخره كذلك ينبغى لكل ذى جسم من الحيوان الناطق ان يعتمد على التقدّم فى المعارف والدرايه * والمحامد الى الغايه * وكنت اود لو ان احدا من اهل بلادنا نقل فضيلة او ماثرة عن هولآ الناس الى اخوانه ومعارفه كما تنقل الاخبار والروايات * وبودى لو تستحيل اصناف الماس والزمرذ والياقوت والدهنج والثعثع والدر والعقيان والكهربا والمها وقلنسوة الراهب معها حالة كونها
معدودة من الجواهر والتحف الى كتب ومدارس
