In what manner? Would you speak of what is necessary to sustain life, or the evil to which people are reduced who cannot procure it?
OSMIN.
No; for that which is necessary to one is not always necessary to another. It is necessary for an Indian to possess rice, for an Englishman to eat animal food, as Russians must wear furs, and Africans gauze. One man believes that he has need of a dozen coach-horses, another limits himself to a pair of shoes, and a third walks gayly on his bare feet. I wish to speak to you of that which is necessary to all men.
SELIM.
It appears to me that God has given us all that is necessary in this sense: eyes to see, feet to walk, a mouth to eat, a gullet to swallow, a stomach to digest, a brain to reason, and organs to produce our kind.
OSMIN.
How happens it then that men are sometimes born who are deprived of a part of these necessary faculties?
SELIM.
Because the general laws of nature are liable to accidents which produce monsters; but in general man is provided with all things necessary to his existence in society.
OSMIN.