The Sun.
London, England, 1823-12-12 00:00:00

THE LAW OF' COMPENSATION.

As three men, were travelling together on the
•
ithid they found a treasure, with which being
much' pleased, they continued to walk; but hun-
ger seized them, and the one said we must have
SoMething to eat, who will go for it ? I will, re-
Plied' the second, and set off for that purpose ;
but In buying the provisions, he thought it would
be a good scheme to mix poison with them, in
order to secure the treasure to himself, and he-
did sce Meanwhile the two others laid a plan
-during his absence to kill him and share between'
themselves the .treasure ; and accordingly on his
arrival they killed him, but having eaten the pro-
visions which he bought, they also died, and the
treasure belonged to nobody.
This is a well known fable of the celebrated
Persian Poet Sadi, whollourished about the 12th
century. Helrequented the school of Bagdad,
travelled into Syria, and fell into the hands of
pirates who put him into prison, and then sent
him to work in the' mines, 'where the mildness of
his temper and the brilliancy of his genius gained
him the favour of his governor, who ransomed him,
and gave him his own daughter to wife, with a
handsome dowry. He cultivated' with much
pains those shining talents with which he was
endowed by nature ; and among other fables re-
lated this, which so strikingly illustrates the
knavery going on continually in society, by which
its several members, instead of trying all they can
to assist, are using all their little arts to client
and annoy one another, till so many in each
party are made to feel at last that after all their
efforts to prosper upon the ruin of the other party,
they are both alike victims to their own malig-
nity,—the pit which they have dug for others
they fall into themselves. There is a lex Milani:
in the genius of every community, as well as in the
JeWish ; and the Christian who will act as a Jew
will be sure to meet with another who will be a
Jew to him. Though we must look for complete
retaliation in the judgment of another life, we yet
may find some specimens of retribution in many
examples of this, if will only wait with pa-
'deuce the event, and not too !hastily decide, from
accident, upon the determination:of Providence;
we must not single out here or there a verse, but
look to tho whole chapter of accidents before we
venture to complain that there is no such thing
as justice visible in--the volume before:us.
However imperfectly the balance may appear
to be held in ninny particular instances, compared
with what we have a right to expect from Reve-
lation, yet there is enough to prove to u 9, if we
will but look on with a steady eye, that all is in
the hands of an iMpartial Judge, who alone
knows, what are the times and seasons—whether
for tbe display or the concealment of his gracious
designs, which, perhaps, are never more gracious
titan when to our dim ken they. -seem big with
calamity, and while the murderer and the hypo.
trite are flattering themselves that they are just
about to grasp in security the object of their
prey, they are only felling by his just appoint.
meat the more precipitately into their own ruin
and destruction. However blind we rimy be to
the wisdom which superintends the world, and
in our infirmity presume to arraign the divine
dispensation.in the apparent exceptions to strict
justice as.they -occur to us, these very exceptions
will only turn out sooner or later examples ,of
the general eule as is 'beautifully illustrated by
the same poet of Persia, who Wtitild inculcate
that grand provision of secondary catiiesby which
good arises naturally from evil.
AS I was walking, says lie, with a friend in a
sultry day, under an avenue of trees, impenetra-
ble to the rays of the sun, between which there
gently flowed a Stream, which invited to repose,
I Ow a man whom I knew to be a villain, sleep-
ing tinder the shade. "Oh God'!" cried -I,
" does not the thought of all the men whom they'
haie Made Miserable interrupt the rest of the,
wicked."

in peace." the same spirit, the mere! phile-
slielpytofritehiledwieicakchlg
ed,' oGusodi'igiarynn.t.t;:.
sopher of our time congratulates mankind upon
the vis inortice inherent in our nature,--or resist.:
ance to inothm,--,-for bad as the world is, with all
this resistance, what would become of: us if we
had an equal tendency to activity ?
uosntie.atmeotrielealnae‘icdof otei
and
I reciprocity. sl 1
m have
A death-bed conjured her husband to forgive her
wife d o
onn 7h
e te or
one fault of which she confessed herself guilty,
and that was of infidelity 'to 'him. The husband,
in his turn, consented to ' forgive her but on one
Contlitition, that she would forgive a fault of his,
which he would never.CoMmit again, that is, says
he, perceiving the truth of your confession before
you opened your lips, I hive poisoned you.
Still another instance of compensation is record-
ed two men tired of life, resolved to drown
themselves ; and though they were hot acquaint.
ed, happened to chase the same spot, and met
upon Westminster-bridge. 'One was tired of the
superfluities of fortune, and the other of its wants
and miseries ; one nits led by disgust, and the other
by despair. I3oth were young, and were surprized
to meet on the same spot with the same design,
by opposite ivays. The man who.was eaten up
with ennui, said to the other, there is no cure for
my evil, there is for yours ; my riches will put
an end to all your misfortunes. I shall at least
r
myself,oktsi
iegierey ropitiefelaer:rdslfg,
yourself.
arnfml.;,:lotiu
siscoil oa:eonue:i el.glt:l:grt.
saved
oa(oai) devt
:leoatdiaine
siitgssiioeol
leefpe%fief,
eoo,cvsereaaetnri
gel,mlueelobi
togulidrown.iflitevedtigiving
is
hiin a sort of - fresh taste for life. Hence began
an intimate union betWeeti the two 'candidates
for the Thames : one gave his daughter in mar-
riage to the 'other, and both were as much at-
tached to life as they were at the moment of
their firit meeting to death. This is an interest-
lug trait of compensation, because it is no inven-
tion, but, a fnEt, recorded in the accounts of the
time s, by
which it is proved that a madman
may
save at once a- wretch from death; and learn fromliimu to
be able to endure, wretchedness of life.