It must be allowed that this old man put his own case to his young wife with very considerable address:  yet, such is woman-nature, she chose to be “a young man’s slave rather than an old man’s darling.”  And, apropos, Saadi has another story which may be added to the foregoing:  An old man was asked why he did not marry.  He answered:  “I should not like an old woman.”  “Then marry a young one, since you have property.”  Quoth he:  “Since I, who am an old man, should not be pleased with an old woman, how can I expect that a young one would be attached to me?”

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” says our great dramatist, in proof of which take this story:  A certain king, when arrived at the end of his days, having no heir, directed in his will that the morning after his death the first person who entered the gate of the city they should place on his head the crown of royalty, and commit to his charge the government of the kingdom.  It happened that the first to enter the city was a dervish, who all his life had collected victuals from the charitable and sewed patch on patch.  The ministers of state and the nobles of the court carried out the king’s will, bestowing on him the kingdom and the treasure.  For some time the dervish governed the kingdom, until part of the nobility swerved their necks from obedience to him, and all the neighbouring monarchs, engaging in hostile confederacies, attacked him with their armies.  In short, the troops and peasantry were thrown into confusion, and he lost the possession of some territories.  The dervish was distressed at these events, when an old friend, who had been his companion in the days of poverty, returned from a journey, and, finding him in such an exalted state, said:  “Praised be the God of excellence and glory, that your high fortune has aided you and prosperity been your guide, so that a rose has issued from the brier, and the thorn has been extracted from your foot, and you have arrived at this dignity.  Of a truth, joy succeeds sorrow; the bud does sometimes blossom and sometimes wither; the tree is sometimes naked and sometimes clothed.”  He replied:  “O brother, condole with me, for this is not a time for congratulation.  When you saw me last, I was only anxious how to obtain bread; but now I have all the cares of the world to encounter.  If the times are adverse, I am in pain; and if they are prosperous, I am captivated with worldly enjoyments.  There is no calamity greater than worldly affairs, because they distress the heart in prosperity as well as in adversity.  If you want riches, seek only for contentment, which is inestimable wealth.  If the rich man would throw money into your lap, consider not yourself obliged to him, for I have often heard that the patience of the poor is preferable to the liberality of the rich.”