ost necessary man is he with whom you
are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one
else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that
purpose alone was man sent into this life!"

THE COFFEE-HOUSE OF SURAT

(After Bernardin de Saint-Pierre)

In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffee-house where many travellers
and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed.

One day a learned Persian theologian visited this coffee-house. He was a
man who had spent his life studying the nature of the Deity, and reading
and writing books upon the subject. He had thought, read, and written so
much about God, that eventually he lost his wits, became quite confused,
and ceased even to believe in the existence of a God. The Shah, hearing
of this, had banished him from Persia.

After having argued all his life about the First Cause, this unfortunate
theologian had ended by quite perplexing himself, and instead of
understanding that he had lost his own reason, he began to think that
there was no higher Reason controlling the universe.

This man had an African slave who followed him everywhere. When the
theologian entered the coffee-house, the slave remained outside, near
the door, sitting on a stone in the glare of the sun, and driving away
the flies that buzzed around him. The Persian having settled down on a
divan in the coffee-house, ordered himself a cup of opium. When he had
drunk it and the opium had begun to quicken the workings of his brain,
he addressed his slave through the open door:

"Tell me, wretched slave," said he, "do you think there is a God, or
not?"

"Of course there is," said the slave, and immediately drew from under
his girdle a small idol of wood.

"There," said he, "that is the God who has guarded me from the day of my
birth. Every one in our country worships the fetish tree, from the wood
of which this God was made."

This conversation between the theologian and his slave was listened
to with surprise by the other guests in the coffee-house. They were
astonished at the master's question, and yet more so at the slave's
reply.

One of them, a Brahmin, on hearing the words spoken by the slave, turned
to him and said:

"Miserable fool! Is it possible you believe that God can be carried
under a man's girdle? There is one God--Brahma, and he is greater than
the whole world, for he created it. Brahma is the One, the mighty God,
and in His