Letter 38

Usbek to Ibben in Smyrna

As soon as an impor­tant per­son dies, peo­ple assem­ble in a mos­que, and they deli­ver his fune­ral ora­tion, which is a speech in his praise, by which one would be hard pres­sed to deter­mine tru­th­fully the merit of the decea­sed.

I would like to ban fune­ral cere­mo­nies : men should be mour­ned at their birth, and not at their death. What good are the cere­mo­nies and the all the dis­mal para­pher­na­lia pla­ced before a dying man in his final moments,¹ even the tears of his family, and the grief of his friends, except to exag­ge­rate to him the loss he will suf­fer ?

We are so blind that we do not know when we should grieve or rejoice : almost all our sor­rows or joys are false.

When I see the Mogul,² who goes foo­li­shly every year and steps onto a scale to be wei­ghed like an ox³ ; when I see peo­ple rejoice that their prince has become more mate­rial, in other words less able to govern them, Ibben, I pity human extra­va­gance.

Paris this 20^th day of the moon of Rhegeb 1713