OF AN IMPRESSION OF EDUCATION

Hi, tremendous young men and women! I had encountered a little story revealed by Sa'adi in his famous Gulistan, which is, I think, worth sharing to everyone.

"A philosopher was exhorting his children and saying:
'O emanation of my soul, acquire knowledge, as no reliance can be placed on worldly riches and possessions, for once you leave home rank is of no use, and gold and silver on a journey are exposed to the risk either of thieves plundering them at once, or of the owner wasting them by degrees; but knowledge is a perennial spring and ever-enduring fortune.

Were a professional man to lose his fortune, he need not feel regret, for his knowledge is of itself a mine of wealth.

Whenever he may sojourn the learned man will meet respect and be ushered into upper seat whilst the ignorant man must put up with offal and suffer want – if thou covet paternal heritage, acquire thy father’s knowledge, for this thy father’s wealth thou may squander in ten days.

After having been in authority, it is hard to obey;
after having been fondled with caresses, to put up with men’s violence.'

"There once occurred an insurrection in Syria, and everybody forsook his former peaceful abode. The sons of peasants, who were of learning came to be employed as the ministers of kings; and the children of noble men, of bankrupt understandings, went a begging from village to village."