THE GRAND SECRET OE HUMAN HAPPINESS. 287 
Yusef. —“ Adjaib ! wonderful! And do they pray, too, 
as well as do all this ?” 
General.— “ Why—yes: they contrive to spare one day 
out of seven ostensibly for that purpose ; some of them can’t 
spare even that. While you barbarians spend most of your 
time in idleness, taking it easy, as the saying is; stopping 
what little work you do at least five times a day to pray and 
smoke, no matter how important may be your business, we 
work hard early and late, and never stop our labors (especially 
if they be profitable) to pray at all, and very seldom to smoke, 
though we economize time by chewing a little. I never knew 
a man in our country to think so much of his soul or any 
body else’s as to stop short in a bargain amounting to ten 
dollars, or even ten cents, for the purpose of communing with 
his Maker. We don’t do it; we haven’t got the time ; can’t 
spare it. Time is money, Yusef. Every day is a dollar, or 
five dollars, or ten dollars; every minute is a cent or the 
fraction of a cent, more or less. 
Yusef.— “ But, in the name of the Prophet, when you get 
all this money together, what do you do with it ? Don’t you 
ever stop working V\ 
General.— “ Oh, yes : we retire from business sometimes; 
purchase a country seat—build a handsome villa, and live 
there a month or two, by which time we become perfectly 
satisfied.” 
Yusef. —“Then you take it easy, and smoke the pipe of 
content at last ?” 
General. —“ Why, no—not exactly. We become perfectly 
satisfied that it’s a dull business—that it won’t pay : too slow, 
entirely too slow; can’t get through life fast enough doing 
nothing in the country. Go back to town. Speculate; make 
more money—or lose what we’ve got. The fact is, life is a 
bore at best; we know it; we get through it as fast as we 
can, in order to skim off what cream there may be in it, and 
enjoy it in a concentrated form ; we live a good deal in a 
short time.” 
Yusef. —“ But what becomes of all the money you make 
by living fast ?” 
