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THE CONTENTS OF THE SCHEDULE WHICH SIR JOHN OF BORDEAUX GAVE TO HIS SONS

10My sons, behold what portion I do give. I leave you goods, but they are quickly lost;
I leave advice, to school you how to live;
I leave you wit, but won with little cost.
But keep it well, for counsel still is one
When father, friends, and worldly goods are gone.11In choice of thrift, let honor be thy gain.
Win it by virtue and by manly might.
In doing good, esteem thy toil no pain;
Protect the fatherless and widow's right.
Fight for thy faith, thy country, and thy king,
For why? This thrift will prove a bless{`e}d thing.12In choice of wife, prefer the modest-chaste;
Lilies are fair in show but foul in smell.
The sweetest looks by age are soon defaced;
Then choose thy wife by wit and living well.
Who brings thee wealth and many faults withal
Presents thee honey mixed with bitter gall.13In choice of friends, beware of light belief;
A painted tongue may shroud a subtle heart.
The Siren's tears do threaten mickle grief;
Foresee, my son, for fear of sudden smart.
Choose in thy wants, and he that friends thee then,
When richer grown, befriend thou him agen.14Learn with the ant in summer to provide;
Drive with the bee the drone from out thy hive.
Build like the swallow in the summer tide;
Spare not too much, my son, but sparing thrive.
Be poor in folly, rich in all but sin.
So by thy death thy glory shall begin.

15Saladin having thus set up the schedule, and hanged about his father's hearse many passionate poems, that France might suppose him to be passing sorrowful, he clad himself and his brothers all in black, and in such sable suits discoursed his grief. But, as the hyena when she mourns is then most guileful, so Saladin under this show of grief shadowed a heart full of contented thoughts. The tiger, though he hide his claws, will at last discover his rapine; the lion's looks are not the maps of his meaning, nor a man's physnomy is not the display of his secrets. Fire cannot be hid in the straw, nor the nature of man so concealed but at last it will have his course. Nurture and art may do much, but that natura naturans which by propagation is ingrafted in the heart will be at last perforce predominant according to the old verse:

17So fared it with Saladin, for, after a month's mourning was passed, he fell to consideration of his father's testament: how he had bequeathed more to his younger brothers than himself; that Rosader was his father's darling but now under his tuition; that as yet they were not come to years, and he being their guardian might, if not defraud them of their due, yet make such havoc of their legacies and lands as they should be a great deal the lighter. Whereupon he began thus to meditate with himself: