| On Buying & Selling | |
| And a merchant said, "Speak to us of Buying and Selling." | |
| And he answered and said: | |
| To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands. | |
| It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. | |
| Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger. | |
| When in the market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices, | |
| Invoke then the master spirit of the earth, to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value. | |
| And suffer not the barren-handed to take part in your transactions, who would sell their words for your labour. | |
| To such men you should say, | |
| "Come with us to the field, or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net; | |
| For the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us." | |
| And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, buy of their gifts also. | |
| For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul. | |
| And before you leave the marketplace, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands. | |
| For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied. |