[18] The cow is sacred among the Hindus.

The sentiment so tersely expressed in the Chinese proverb, “He who never reveals a secret keeps it best,” is thus finely amplified by Saadi:  “The matter which you wish to preserve as a secret impart not to every one, although he may be worthy of confidence; for no one will be so true to your secret as yourself.  It is safer to be silent than to reveal a secret to any one, and tell him not to mention it.  O wise man! stop the water at the spring-head, for when it is in full stream you cannot arrest it."[19]

   [19] Thus also Jami, in his Baharistan (Second “Garden"): 
        “With regard to a secret divulged and one kept
        concealed, there is in use an excellent proverb, that
        the one is an arrow still in our possession, and the
        other is an arrow sent from the bow.”  And another
        Persian poet, whose name I have not ascertained,
        eloquently exclaims:  “O my heart! if thou desirest ease
        in this life, keep thy secrets undisclosed, like the
        modest rose-bud.  Take warning from that lovely flower,
        which, by expanding its hitherto hidden beauties when in
        full bloom, gives its leaves and its happiness to the
        winds.”

The imperative duty of active benevolence is thus inculcated:  “Bestow thy gold and thy wealth while they are thine; for when thou art gone they will be no longer in thy power.  Distribute thy treasure readily to-day, for to-morrow the key may be no longer in thy hand.  Exert thyself to cast a covering over the poor, that God’s own veil may be a covering to thee.”

In the following passage the man of learning and virtue is contrasted with the stupid and ignorant blockhead: 

“If a wise man, falling into company with mean people, does not get credit for his discourse, be not surprised, for the sound of the harp cannot overpower the noise of the drum, and the fragrance of ambergris is overcome by fetid garlic.  The ignorant fellow was proud of his loud voice, because he had impudently confounded the man of understanding.  If a jewel falls in the mud it is still the same precious stone,[20] and if dust flies up to the sky it retains its original baseness.  A capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away.  Sugar obtains not its value from the cane, but from its innate quality.  Musk has fragrance of itself, and not from being called a perfume by the druggist.  The wise man is like the druggist’s chest, silent, but full of virtues; while the blockhead resembles the warrior’s drum, noisy, but an empty prattler.  A wise man in the company of those who are ignorant has been compared by the sages to a beautiful girl in the company of blind men, and to the Kuran in the house of an infidel.”—­The old proverb that “an evil bird has an evil egg” finds expression by Saadi thus:  “No one whose origin is bad ever catches the reflection of the good.”  Again, he says:  “How can we make a good sword out of bad iron?  A worthless person cannot by education become a person of any worth.”  And yet again:  “Evil habits which have taken root in one’s nature will only be got rid of at the hour of death.”