Reviewing the argument of these pages and the suggestions of the last chapter, we conclude that, whilst the ranks of the Wise were wide enough to include men of diverse character and outlook, they must be credited with having had a definite standpoint and a method of their own well suited to the circumstances of their times.
Let us now turn our attention from the Wise themselves to the men they observed. Let us walk with Judah and Joseph through the busy streets, and take our stand with them in the open spaces by the city-gates, and overhear their comments on the scenes of human intercourse which met their eyes. Let us, as it were, join some group that has gathered round to enjoy their talk, to applaud their maxims and their morals, to laugh as the characteristics of this man or of that are hit off in some shrewd epigram, and perhaps—if need be—to take to heart the lesson.
In the popular talk there were doubtless many sayings concerning the habits of the various craftsmen and traders—the potter, the sandal-maker, and so forth—but (perhaps because the purpose of the Wise was so broadly humanistic in its outlook) such specialistic sayings are rare in the literature the Sages have left us. A few, however, do occur in which men are pictured from the standpoint of their external relationships, and with these we may conveniently begin.
First, then, an observation so faithful to human nature that it has never lost its spice and is appropriate in all countries, although it must always have had peculiar pungency in the deceitful, haggling, Eastern marts. Behold the bargain-hunter drawn to the life:
“It is nought, it is nought,” saith the buyer;
But when he is gone on his way then he boasteth (Pr. 2014).
Not a man in old Jerusalem but must have felt the dry humour and the accusing truth. But here is the other side of the transaction:
A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong,
And a huckster shall not be acquitted of sin.
Many have transgressed for the sake of gain,
And the fortune-hunter requires a blind eye.
As a nail will stick fast between the joinings of stones,
So will sin thrust in between buying and selling (E. 2629-272).
Six of one and half a dozen of the other, but perhaps neither buyer nor seller were such rogues as they are painted! Let us allow a discount for the epigram.
Of the man in debt, a problem for society in all periods, the Sages said plainly but sufficiently:
The rich man lords it over the poor,
And the borrower is the lender’s slave (Pr. 227).