Buying and Selling
And a merchant said, "Speak to us
of Buying and Selling."
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.
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, "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." 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.
And before you leave the marketplace, 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.