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Chapter 11 - Buying and Selling |
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a merchant said, "Speak to us of Buying and Selling." |
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| And he answered and said: To you the earth yields
her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how
to fill your hands. It is in exchanging the gifts of
the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.
Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice
it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger. |
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| When in the market-place you toilers of the sea
and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters
and the gatherers of spices,- Invoke then the master
spirit of the earth, to come into your midst and sanctify
the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against
value. And suffer not the barren-handed to take part
in your transactions, who would sell their words for
your labour. To such men you should say: |
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| "Come with us to the field, or go with our brothers
to the sea and cast your net; For the land and the
sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us." |
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| And if there come the singers and the dancers and
the flute players, - buy of their gifts also. For they
too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that
which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment
and food for your soul. |
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| And before you leave the market-place, see that
no one has gone his way with empty hands. For the master
spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon
the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied. |
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