The King's Example by William Rounseville Alger

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 28, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 47.

The King's Example

By William Rounseville Alger

Once Sultan Nushirvan the just, hunting, Stopped in an open field to take a lunch. He wanted salt, and to a servant said, "Go, get some at the nearest house, but pay The price the peasant asks." "Great king," exclaimed The servant, "thou art lord o'er all this realm; Why take the pains to buy a little salt?" "It is a little thing," said Nushirvan, "And so, at first, was all the evil whose Most monstrous load now presses so the world. Were there no little wrongs, no great could be. If I from off a poor man's tree should pluck A single apple, straight my slaves would rob The whole tree to its roots; if I should seize Five eggs, my ministers at once would snatch A hundred hens. Therefore strict justice must I, even in unimportant acts, observe. Bring salt, but pay the peasant what he asks." —W. R. Alger.