Untitled

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SECRETARY*
Hence the Secretary must be of gentle birth, of refinecf honour,
qf penntrating discernment, of profound reflection, and of piercing
and the amolest portion and fullest share of literary
judgement ;
culture and its fruits must be his. Neither must he.be remote
from, or unacquainted with, logical ''analogies; and he must
know the ranks of his contemporaries,, and be fajniliar with the*
dignities of the leading men of his time. Moreover he should not
be absorbed in the wealth and perishable goods of this world ;
nor concern himself with the approval or condemnation of persons
prejudiced in his favour or against him,'or be misled by them;
and he should, when exercising his secretarial functions, guard
th? hoftour, of his master 'from degrading situations and humi-
liating usages. And in the course of his letter and tenour of his
correspondence he should not quarrel with honourable and
powerful personages ; and, even though enmity subsist between
his master and the person whom he is addressing, he should
restrain Ifis pen, and not attack his honour, save in the case of
one who may have, overstepped his own proper limit, or advanced
his foot beyond the circle of respect, for they say :
"
One for one,
and he who begins is most in the wrong 1
'.'
Moreover in his forms of address he should observe moderation,
writing to each person that which his family pedigree, kingdom,
domain, army, and treasure indicate save in the case of one ;
>yho
may himself have fallen short in this matter, or made display of
undue pride, or neglected some point of courtesy, or manifested
a faYniliarity which reason cannot regard otherwise than as
misplaced in such correspondence, and unsuitable to epistolary
communications. In such cases 3 it is peitnitted and allowed to
the Secretary to take up his pen, set his best foot forward, (\r) aijd
in this pass go to the extreme limit and utmost bound, for the
most perfect of mankind and the most excellent of them (upon
him be the Blessings o/ God and His : " Peace) says Haughtiness
towards the hai^ghty is a good work z ." But in no case must he
suffer any dust f?om the atmosphere of recrimination in this
arena of correspondence to alight on the skirt of his master's
honour" and in the ; setting forth of his message he must adopt
that method whereby the words shall subserve the ideas and
the matter be briefly expressed ;
'
13
for the orators of the Arabs have
said, " The best speech is that which is brief and significant, [not
long and wearisome]*." For if the ideas be subordinated to the
1
to blame."
^JLbl i*jUt 5 S.x.tj 3j*^U i.e. " Tit for tat, and the aggressor is most
*
* , !
2 < {-<
, a'
3 (
last words.
5 J* S J 5 U>9U2M >-. The printed
text omits the