hand which is wounded in striking him? To bless the one who offends him?[1]
The evangelical precept paraphrased by Hafiz is found in substance in a discourse of Lysias; it is clearly expressed by Thales and Pittacus; Kong-Tse taught it in the same words as Jesus; finally one finds in the Arya, written more than three centuries before our era, these lines which seem made expressly to inculcate the maxim and depict the death of the righteous man:
The duty of a good man, even at the moment of his destruction, consists not only in forgiving but even in a desire of benefiting his destroyer; as the Sandal-tree, in the instant of its overthrow sheds perfume on the ax which fells; and he would triumph in repeating the verse of Sadi who represents a return of good for good as a slight reciprocity, but says to the virtuous man, "confer benefits on him who has injured thee."[2]
Interrogate the peoples from the Boreal pole to the extremities of Asia, and ask them what they think of virtue: they will respond to you, as Zeno, that it is all that is good and beautiful; the Scandinavians, disciples of Odin, will show you the Hâvamâl, sublime discourse of their ancient legislator, wherein hospitality, charity, justice, and courage are expressly commended to them: You will know by tradition that the Celts had the sacred verses of their Druids, wherein piety, justice, and valour were celebrated as national virtues[3]; you will see in the books preserved
- ↑ Hafiz, cité par les auteurs Des Recherches asiatiques, t. iv., p. 167.
- ↑ L'Arya, cité comme ci-dessus: "L'homme de bien, paisable au moment qu'il expire, Tourne sur ses bourreaux un œil religieux, Et bénit jusqu'au bras qui cause son martyre: Tel l'arbre de Sandal que frappe un furieux, Couvre de ses parfums le fer qui le dechire."
- ↑ Diogen. Laërt., In Prœm., p. 5.
