THE KING'S MIRROR 201 



such men have disputes to settle anywhere, the wicked 

 will support the foolish one, so that he may prevail in 

 the controversy; thus the upright and the peaceful are 

 robbed of their dues. If the greedy or the quarrelsome 

 is slain because of his avarice, his stupid kinsmen who 

 survive him will feel that their family has been greatly 

 injured and impaired thereby; and if at some earlier time 

 there was slain one of their family who was both wise 

 and peaceful, and whose wisdom and even temper 

 proved useful to many, and if this one was atoned for 

 with a payment to the kindred, they will now ask as 

 large a fine for the unwise as what was formerly taken 

 for the prudent one; otherwise there will be revenge by 

 man-slaying. 



But when God sees that such misjudgments, born of 

 perversity and unwisdom, are decreed, He turns the in- 

 justice back upon those who first began to pass unfair 

 and unfounded judgments. For as soon as the foolish or 

 the avaricious sees that he is held in high regard, even 

 more than the wise with his even temper, and that his 

 avarice and folly are turned to honor and advance 

 he will do according to his nature and the custom of all ) 

 foolish men: he will become more grasping and will 

 operate more widely in his greed. And when the mo 

 begins to regard that as worthy of praise and renown 

 which is evil and should be hated by all, the second 

 and the third will learn it and the one after the other, 

 until it becomes common custom; and he alone will be 

 counted a worthy man who is grasping and knows how 

 to detract unjustly from another's honor to his own 

 profit. After that the one deals greedily with the other, 



