Bab Bab 94 · CHAPTER XLII. OF THE COUNSELS WHICH DON QUIXOTE GAVE SANCHO PANZA BEFORE HE SET OUT

. CHAPTER XLII. OF THE COUNSELS WHICH DON QUIXOTE GAVE SANCHO PANZA BEFORE HE SET OUT

CHAPTER XLII.

OF THE COUNSELS WHICH DON QUIXOTE GAVE SANCHO PANZA BEFORE HE SET OUT

TO GOVERN THE ISLAND, TOGETHER WITH OTHER WELL-CONSIDERED MATTERS

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The duke and duchess were so well pleased with the successful and droll

result of the adventure of the Distressed One, that they resolved to

carry on the joke, seeing what a fit subject they had to deal with for

making it all pass for reality. So having laid their plans and given

instructions to their servants and vassals how to behave to Sancho in

his government of the promised island, the next day, that following

Clavileño’s flight, the duke told Sancho to prepare and get ready to go

and be governor, for his islanders were already looking out for him as

for the showers of May.

Sancho made him an obeisance, and said, “Ever since I came down from

heaven, and from the top of it beheld the earth, and saw how little it

is, the great desire I had to be a governor has been partly cooled in

me; for what is there grand in being ruler on a grain of mustard seed,

or what dignity or authority in governing half a dozen men about as big

as hazel nuts; for, so far as I could see, there were no more on the

whole earth? If your lordship would be so good as to give me ever so

small a bit of heaven, were it no more than half a league, I’d rather

have it than the best island in the world.”

“Recollect, Sancho,” said the duke, “I cannot give a bit of heaven, no

not so much as the breadth of my nail, to anyone; rewards and favours

of that sort are reserved for God alone. What I can give I give you,

and that is a real, genuine island, compact, well proportioned, and

uncommonly fertile and fruitful, where, if you know how to use your

opportunities, you may, with the help of the world’s riches, gain those

of heaven.”

“Well then,” said Sancho, “let the island come; and I’ll try and be

such a governor, that in spite of scoundrels I’ll go to heaven; and

it’s not from any craving to quit my own humble condition or better

myself, but from the desire I have to try what it tastes like to be a

governor.”

“If you once make trial of it, Sancho,” said the duke, “you’ll eat your

fingers off after the government, so sweet a thing is it to command and

be obeyed. Depend upon it when your master comes to be emperor (as he

will beyond a doubt from the course his affairs are taking), it will be

no easy matter to wrest the dignity from him, and he will be sore and

sorry at heart to have been so long without becoming one.”

“Señor,” said Sancho, “it is my belief it’s a good thing to be in

command, if it’s only over a drove of cattle.”

“May I be buried with you, Sancho,” said the duke, “but you know

everything; I hope you will make as good a governor as your sagacity

promises; and that is all I have to say; and now remember to-morrow is

the day you must set out for the government of the island, and this

evening they will provide you with the proper attire for you to wear,

and all things requisite for your departure.”

“Let them dress me as they like,” said Sancho; “however I’m dressed

I’ll be Sancho Panza.”

“That’s true,” said the duke; “but one’s dress must be suited to the

office or rank one holds; for it would not do for a jurist to dress

like a soldier, or a soldier like a priest. You, Sancho, shall go

partly as a lawyer, partly as a captain, for, in the island I am giving

you, arms are needed as much as letters, and letters as much as arms.”

“Of letters I know but little,” said Sancho, “for I don’t even know the

A B C; but it is enough for me to have the Christus in my memory to be

a good governor. As for arms, I’ll handle those they give me till I

drop, and then, God be my help!”

“With so good a memory,” said the duke, “Sancho cannot go wrong in

anything.”

Here Don Quixote joined them; and learning what passed, and how soon

Sancho was to go to his government, he with the duke’s permission took

him by the hand, and retired to his room with him for the purpose of

giving him advice as to how he was to demean himself in his office. As

soon as they had entered the chamber he closed the door after him, and

almost by force made Sancho sit down beside him, and in a quiet tone

thus addressed him: “I give infinite thanks to heaven, friend Sancho,

that, before I have met with any good luck, fortune has come forward to

meet thee. I who counted upon my good fortune to discharge the

recompense of thy services, find myself still waiting for advancement,

while thou, before the time, and contrary to all reasonable

expectation, seest thyself blessed in the fulfillment of thy desires.

Some will bribe, beg, solicit, rise early, entreat, persist, without

attaining the object of their suit; while another comes, and without

knowing why or wherefore, finds himself invested with the place or

office so many have sued for; and here it is that the common saying,

‘There is good luck as well as bad luck in suits,’ applies. Thou, who,

to my thinking, art beyond all doubt a dullard, without early rising or

night watching or taking any trouble, with the mere breath of

knight-errantry that has breathed upon thee, seest thyself without more

ado governor of an island, as though it were a mere matter of course.

This I say, Sancho, that thou attribute not the favour thou hast

received to thine own merits, but give thanks to heaven that disposes

matters beneficently, and secondly thanks to the great power the

profession of knight-errantry contains in itself. With a heart, then,

inclined to believe what I have said to thee, attend, my son, to thy

Cato here who would counsel thee and be thy polestar and guide to

direct and pilot thee to a safe haven out of this stormy sea wherein

thou art about to ingulf thyself; for offices and great trusts are

nothing else but a mighty gulf of troubles.

“First of all, my son, thou must fear God, for in the fear of him is

wisdom, and being wise thou canst not err in aught.

“Secondly, thou must keep in view what thou art, striving to know

thyself, the most difficult thing to know that the mind can imagine. If

thou knowest thyself, it will follow thou wilt not puff thyself up like

the frog that strove to make himself as large as the ox; if thou dost,

the recollection of having kept pigs in thine own country will serve as

the ugly feet for the wheel of thy folly.”

“That’s the truth,” said Sancho; “but that was when I was a boy;

afterwards when I was something more of a man it was geese I kept, not

pigs. But to my thinking that has nothing to do with it; for all who

are governors don’t come of a kingly stock.”

“True,” said Don Quixote, “and for that reason those who are not of

noble origin should take care that the dignity of the office they hold

be accompanied by a gentle suavity, which wisely managed will save them

from the sneers of malice that no station escapes.

“Glory in thy humble birth, Sancho, and be not ashamed of saying thou

art peasant-born; for when it is seen thou art not ashamed no one will

set himself to put thee to the blush; and pride thyself rather upon

being one of lowly virtue than a lofty sinner. Countless are they who,

born of mean parentage, have risen to the highest dignities, pontifical

and imperial, and of the truth of this I could give thee instances

enough to weary thee.

“Remember, Sancho, if thou make virtue thy aim, and take a pride in

doing virtuous actions, thou wilt have no cause to envy those who have

princely and lordly ones, for blood is an inheritance, but virtue an

acquisition, and virtue has in itself alone a worth that blood does not

possess.

“This being so, if perchance anyone of thy kinsfolk should come to see

thee when thou art in thine island, thou art not to repel or slight

him, but on the contrary to welcome him, entertain him, and make much

of him; for in so doing thou wilt be approved of heaven (which is not

pleased that any should despise what it hath made), and wilt comply

with the laws of well-ordered nature.

“If thou carriest thy wife with thee (and it is not well for those that

administer governments to be long without their wives), teach and

instruct her, and strive to smooth down her natural roughness; for all

that may be gained by a wise governor may be lost and wasted by a

boorish stupid wife.

“If perchance thou art left a widower—a thing which may happen—and in

virtue of thy office seekest a consort of higher degree, choose not one

to serve thee for a hook, or for a fishing-rod, or for the hood of thy

‘won’t have it;’ for verily, I tell thee, for all the judge’s wife

receives, the husband will be held accountable at the general calling

to account; where he will have repay in death fourfold, items that in

life he regarded as naught.

“Never go by arbitrary law, which is so much favoured by ignorant men

who plume themselves on cleverness.

“Let the tears of the poor man find with thee more compassion, but not

more justice, than the pleadings of the rich.

“Strive to lay bare the truth, as well amid the promises and presents

of the rich man, as amid the sobs and entreaties of the poor.

“When equity may and should be brought into play, press not the utmost

rigour of the law against the guilty; for the reputation of the stern

judge stands not higher than that of the compassionate.

“If perchance thou permittest the staff of justice to swerve, let it be

not by the weight of a gift, but by that of mercy.

“If it should happen to thee to give judgment in the cause of one who

is thine enemy, turn thy thoughts away from thy injury and fix them on

the justice of the case.

“Let not thine own passion blind thee in another man’s cause; for the

errors thou wilt thus commit will be most frequently irremediable; or

if not, only to be remedied at the expense of thy good name and even of

thy fortune.

“If any handsome woman come to seek justice of thee, turn away thine

eyes from her tears and thine ears from her lamentations, and consider

deliberately the merits of her demand, if thou wouldst not have thy

reason swept away by her weeping, and thy rectitude by her sighs.

“Abuse not by word him whom thou hast to punish in deed, for the pain

of punishment is enough for the unfortunate without the addition of

thine objurgations.

“Bear in mind that the culprit who comes under thy jurisdiction is but

a miserable man subject to all the propensities of our depraved nature,

and so far as may be in thy power show thyself lenient and forbearing;

for though the attributes of God are all equal, to our eyes that of

mercy is brighter and loftier than that of justice.

“If thou followest these precepts and rules, Sancho, thy days will be

long, thy fame eternal, thy reward abundant, thy felicity unutterable;

thou wilt marry thy children as thou wouldst; they and thy

grandchildren will bear titles; thou wilt live in peace and concord

with all men; and, when life draws to a close, death will come to thee

in calm and ripe old age, and the light and loving hands of thy

great-grandchildren will close thine eyes.

“What I have thus far addressed to thee are instructions for the

adornment of thy mind; listen now to those which tend to that of the

body.”

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