How the merchant saw the parrots of India in the plain and delivered the parrot's message.
When he reached the farthest bounds of India, he saw a number of parrots in the plain.
He halted his beast; then he gave voice, delivered the greeting and (discharged) the trust.
One of those parrots trembled exceedingly, fell, and died, and its breath stopped.
The merchant repented of having told the news, and said, “I have gone about to destroy the creature.
This one, surely, is kin to that little parrot (of mine): they must have been two bodies and one spirit.
Why did I do this? Why did I give the message? I have consumed the poor creature by this raw (foolish) speech.”
This tongue is like stone and is also fire-like, and that which springs from the tongue is like fire.
Do not vainly strike stone and iron against each other, now for the sake of relating (a story), now for the sake of boasting,
Because it is dark, and on every side are fields of cotton: how should sparks be amongst cotton?
Iniquitous are those persons who shut their eyes and by such (vain) words set a whole world ablaze.
A single word lays waste a (whole) world, turns dead foxes into lions.
Spirits in their original nature have the (life-giving) breath of Jesus, (but while they remain embodied) one breath of it (the spirit) is a wound, and the other a plaster.
If the (bodily) screen were removed from the spirits, the speech of every spirit would be like (the breath of) the Messiah.
If you wish to utter words like sugar, refrain from concupiscence and do not eat this sweetmeat (the desires of the flesh).
Self-control is the thing desired by the intelligent; sweetmeat is what children long for.
Whoever practises self-control ascends to Heaven, whoever eats sweetmeat falls farther behind.
