Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/149

Rh approached and formed a circle round him, stretching out to him their hands,—and the sweat of their cupidity streamed from their brows! And in paying, he instructed them; his voice was sharp and hissing as the grinding of a dagger over the face of a polished mirror.

"Wheresoever you may glide, be cautious and of honied sweetness!

"In the house of the old Signors, be humble and lavish of incense to their pride: in the house of the poor, flatter their poverty!

"When the husband tyrannizes over his wife, console her: when the father is hard with his sons, lend them the money of which they have need!

"The strong every where oppress the weak: protect the weak; and all complaints and furtive hopes, like hidden treasures, shall open before you!

"Should you find one melancholy and silent, be yourself loudly desperate: your cry of pain will awaken his voice!

"When you meet the young devoured with impatience to act, bind them on the instant by terrible oaths! Glide mysterious arms under their garments; it is with men as with grains of corn: the fuller they are, the more easily may they be hulled!

"Let your memory be eager, keen, and limitless: if the winds shake the leaves of a tree, listen to their rustling!

"Should you find a pin upon your way, pick it up and bring it here: it is of more worth than a sword, for where the sword intervenes, there is no longer time!

"Love children, and learn skillfully to play with them; as butterflies upon flowers, so repose the secret mysteries of families upon their lips!

"Knowledge is the gift of gifts. A single prison would not contain the bodies of all, but a single brain may seize upon the thoughts of all, and, like the dome of an immense dungeon, may vault above them all!

"Go and traverse the world!"

And all laden with gold, they vanished like phantoms! A rose-colored curtain was now rolled upon the other side of the subterranean abyss, and iron doors were