Chapter I: On Doing Good and Evil, and the Result

A man who does good has no evil to fear ;No person does evil that good may appear.The promoters of sin, also, wickedly roam,Like scorpions, that seldom get back to their home.If your nature is such that it benefits none ;The jewel and stone, in like manner are one.I am wrong, oh companion, of temp'rament sweet!In a face, stone and iron, you profit will meet.Such a man's better dead than enduring the shame,That a stone can than him greater excellence claim.Not each son sprung from Adam surpasses the beast;For a brute is less vile than a villain, at least.A man who is wise, leaves the beast far behind—Not the being who, brute-like, attacks his own kind.When a man knows of eating and sleeping alone,Over beasts, in what way is his excellence shown?From the ill-fated horseman, who galloped astray,The footman, in walking, the prize bore away.No person has sown generosity's seed,Who reaps not, in harvest, befitting his need.I never have heard, since my lifetime began,That goodness comes forth to reward the bad man.