LETTER XI
Usbek to Mirza, at Ispahan
You waive your own
judgment in deference to mine;1you
even deign to consult me; you to profess your belief in my ability to instruct
you. My dear, Mirza if there is one thing which flatters me more
than your good opinion of me, it is the friendship which prompts it.
In the fulfillment
of the task you have prescribed me, I do not think there is any necessity
for argument of an abstruse order. There are certain truths which
it is not sufficient to know, but which must be realized: such are the
great commonplaces of morality. Probably the following fable will
affect you more than the most subtle argument:
One upon a time there dwelt
in Arabia a small tribe called Troglodites, descendents of the ancient
Troglodites, who, if historians are to be believed,2
were liker beasts than men. They were not, however, counterfeit presentments
of the lower animals. They had not fur like bears; they did not hiss
like serpents; and they did possess two eyes:3
but they were so malicious, so brutish, that they lacked all notion of
justice and equity.
A king of foreign origin
reigned over them. Wishing to correct their natural wickedness, he
treated them with severity; but they conspired against him, slew him, and
exterminated his line.
They then assembled to appoint
a governing body. After many dissensions, they elected magistrates.
These had not been long in office, when they found them
intolerable, and killed them also.
Freed from this new yoke,
the people were swayed only by their savage instincts. Every man
determined to do what was right in his own eyes; and in attending to his
own interests, the general welfare was forgotten.
The unanimous decision gave
universal satisfaction. They said: “Why should I kill myself with
work for those in whom I have no interest? I will only think of myself:
how should the welfare of others affect me: I will provide for my
own necessities; and, if these are satisfied, it is not concern of mine
though all the other Troglodites live in misery.”
Each man said to himself
in seed-time, “I shall till no more land than will supply me with corn
enough for my wants. What use have I for any more? I am not
going to bother myself for nothing.”
The land in this little
kingdom was not all of the same quality: some of it was barren and mountainous;
and other portions, lying low, were well-watered. One
year a drought occurred, so severe, that the uplands bore no crop at all,
whilst those that were well-watered brought forth abundantly. In
consequence of this, the highlanders almost all died of hungered, because
the people of the lowlands had no mercy on them, and refused to share the
harvest.
The year after, the weather
being very wet, the higher grounds produced extraordinary crops, whilst
the lowlands were flooded. Again half the people were famine-stricken;
but the wretched sufferers found the mountaineers as hard as they themselves
had been.
One of the chief men of
the country had a very lovely wife. A neighbour of his fell in love
with her, and carried her off. This gave rise to a bitter quarrel;
and after many words and blows, the parties agreed to submit their case
to the judgment of a Troglodite, who had been well esteemed during the
republic. Having gone to him, they were about to argue the case before
him, when he cried, “What does it matter whose wife she is? My land
waits to be tilled; and I am not going to waste my time settling your quarrels
and doing your business, when I might be attending to my own; be kind enough
to leave me alone, and trouble me no more with your disputes.” With
that he left them, and went to work in his fields. The ravisher,
who was the stronger man, swore he would sooner die than give up the woman.
The other, smarting under his neighbour’s ill-treatment and the unfeeling
conduct of the umpire, was going home in despair, when he met a fine young
woman returning from the well. Having no longer a wife of his own,
he was attracted towards her; and she pleased him all the more when he
learnt she was the wife of him whom he had solicited to judge his case,
and who had proved so pitiless to him. He therefore seized the woman
and carried her to his house.
Another man, the owner of
some fairly productive ground, took great pains in its cultivation.
Two of his neighbors conspired to drive him from his house, and seize his
lands. They entered into a compact to oppose all who should try to
oust them, and they actually succeeded for several months. One of
the two, however, disgusted at having to share what might be his own exclusively,
killed the other, and became sole master of the ground. But his reign
was soon over: two other Troglodites attacked him, and as he was no match
for them, they killed him.
Still another Troglodite,
seeing some wool exposed for sale, asked the price of it. The seller
argued thus with himself: “At the market price I should receive for my
wool as much money as would buy two measures of corn; but I will sell it
for four times that sum, and then I can buy eight measures.” As the
other wanted the wool, he paid the price demanded. “Many thanks,”
said the vendor, “I shall now buy some corn.” “What rejoined the
buyer, “you want corn? I have some to sell; but the price will rather
astonish you. You must know that, as there is a famine in the land,
corn is extremely dear. If you return me my money, I will give you
on measure of corn: I would not give you a grain more for the price, though
you were to die of hunger.”
Meantime a dreadful malady
was ravaging the land. An able physician came from a neighboring
country, and prescribed with such success that he cured all his patients.
When the plague ceased, he called for his fees, but was refused by one
and all. There was nothing for it but to return to his own country,
which he reached worn to a skeleton by the fatigues of a long journey.
Soon after he heard that the same disease had broken out afresh among these
thankless people, and with more virulence than before. This time
they did not wait for him, but sent to entreat his presence. “Begone,”
he cried, “unrighteous men! In your souls there is a poison more
deadly than that which you wish me to cure; you are unworthy to live, for
you are inhuman monsters, unacquainted with the first principles of justice.
I will not offend the gods who punish you by opposing their just wrath.”
Erzeroum, the 3rd of the second moon of Gemmadi4,
1711.
1 “Essayer la mienne,”
a Gascon provincialism for “user,” &c. the meaning is, therefore,
as above, and not “to test mine.”
2 Herodotus , Plutarch,
Pomponius Mela, and Pliny the Elder, are the authorities for the Troglodites.
3 Contradictions
of assertions in Pomponius Mela.
4 Gemal-i-ul-sani,
the sixth month of the Persian year.