Ferishtah's Fancies/The Family
4. THE FAMILY.
A certain neighbour lying sick to death,Ferishtah grieved beneath a palm-tree, whenceHe rose at peace: whereat objected one"Gudarz our friend gasps in extremity.Sure, thou art ignorant how close at handDeath presses, or the cloud, which fouled so lateThy face, had deepened down not lightened off."
"I judge there will be respite, for I prayed."
"Sir, let me understand, of charity! Yestereve, what was thine admonishment?'All-wise, all-good, all-mighty—God is such!'How then should man, the all-unworthy, darePropose to set aside a thing ordained?To pray means—substitute man's will for God's:Two best wills cannot be: by consequence,What is man bound to but—assent, say I?Rather to rapture of thanksgiving; sinceThat which seems worst to man to God is best,So, because God ordains it, best to man.Yet man—the foolish, weak and wicked—prays!Urges 'My best were better, didst Thou know'!"
"List to a tale. A worthy householderOf Shiraz had three sons, beside a spouse Whom, cutting gourds, a serpent bit, whereonThe offended limb swelled black from foot to fork.The husband called in aid a leech renownedWorld-wide, confessed the lord of surgery,And bade him dictate—who forthwith declared'Sole remedy is amputation.' Straight,The husband sighed 'Thou knowest: be it so!'His three sons heard their mother sentenced: 'Pause!'Outbroke the elder: 'Be precipitateNowise, I pray thee! Take some gentler way,Thou sage of much resource! I will not doubtBut science still may save foot, leg and thigh!'The next in age snapped petulant: 'Too rash!No reason for this maiming! What, Sir Leech,Our parent limps henceforward while we leap? Shame on thee! Save the limb thou must and shalt!''Shame on yourselves, ye bold ones!' followed upThe brisk third brother, youngest, pertest too:'The leech knows all things, we are ignorant;What he proposes, gratefully accept!For me, had I some unguent bound to healHurts in a twinkling, hardly would I dareEssay its virtue and so cross the sageBy cure his skill pronounces folly. Quick!No waiting longer! There the patient lies:Out then with implements and operate!'"
"Ah, the young devil!""Why, his reason chimedRight with the Hakim's." 'Hakim's, ay—but chit's?How? what the skilled eye saw and judged of weightTo overbear a heavy consequence,That—shall a sciolist affect to see?All he saw—that is, all such oaf should see,Was just the mother's suffering.""In my tale,Be God the Hakim: in the husband's case,Call ready acquiescence—aptitudeAngelic, understanding swift and sure:Call the first son—a wise humanity,Slow to conceive but duteous to adopt:See in the second son—humanity,Wrong-headed yet right-hearted, rash but kind:Last comes the cackler of the brood, our chit Who, aping wisdom all beyond his years,Thinks to discard humanity itself:Fares like the beast which should affect to flyBecause a bird with wings may spurn the ground,So, missing heaven and losing earth—drops howBut hell-wards? No, be man and nothing more—Man who, as man conceiving, hopes and fears,And craves and deprecates, and loves, and loathes,And bids God help him, till death touch his eyesAnd show God granted most, denying all."
Man I am and man would be, Love—merest man and nothing more.Bid me seem no other! Eagles boast of pinions—let them soar!I may put forth angel's plumage, once unmanned, but not before.
Man I am and man would be, Love—merest man and nothing more.Bid me seem no other! Eagles boast of pinions—let them soar!I may put forth angel's plumage, once unmanned, but not before.
Now on earth, to stand suffices,—nay, if kneeling serves, to kneel:Here you front me, here I find the all of heaven that earth can feel:Sense looks straight,—not over, under,—perfect sees beyond appeal.
Good you are and wise, full circle: what to me were more outside?Wiser wisdom, better goodness? Ah, such want the angel's wideSense to take and hold and keep them! Mine at least has never tried.