'"
[12] Simonides used to say that he never regretted having
held his tongue, but very often had he felt sorry for
having spoken.--_Stobaeus_: Flor. xxxiii, 12.
The Persian poet Jami--the last of the brilliant galaxy of genius who
enriched the literature of their country, and who flourished two
centuries after Saadi had passed to his rest--reproduces these sayings
of the four kings in his work entitled _Baharistan_, or Abode of Spring,
which is similar in design to the _Gulistan_.
Among the sayings of other wise men (whose names, however, Saadi does
not mention) are the following: A devotee, who had quitted his monastery
and become a member of a college, being asked what difference there is
between a learned man and a religious man to induce him thus to change
his associates, answered: "The devotee saves his own blanket out of the
waves, and the learned man endeavours to save others from drowning."--A
young man complained to his spiritual guide of his studies being
frequently interrupted by idle and impudent visitors, and desired to
know by what means he might rid himself of the annoyance. The sage
replied: "To such as are poor lend money, and of such as are rich ask
money, and, depend upon it, you will never see one of them again."
Saadi's own aphorisms are not less striking and instructive.
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