many, especially in the environment we live in, for we rub shoulders with one another a great deal.

And life has taught me that happiness lies not in the possession of money, villages, and jewels, nor in the spread of fame, the pleasure of ruling, and the winning of high ranks and lofty decorations; but happiness — all of happiness — lies in the possession of good health and a good name. What use are palaces and mansions if they are not joined with health and well-being?? How marvelous a thing is man — how weak he is when he falls ill, and how mighty his arrogance when he is cured!! To my mind, the loss of money and prestige is easy for a person to bear beside the loss of health and an honorable reputation, for these are the measure of a person's happiness — indeed, the one and only secret of that happiness.

Life has taught me that money goes back the way it came: if its owner gathered it from usury or from the gaming table, it goes and dwindles away through loss along those same two roads. Ill-gotten money bears no fruit whatsoever; but the honest piaster which a person earns by the sweat of his brow and the toil of his right hand — that is the blessed piaster which a person enjoys in his lifetime, and his children after his death.

And life has taught me that the small good deed a person bestows upon the beggar and the deprived wards off great calamities from him. This is a standing truth in which I believe with all my faith. It is necessary that the beggar and the deprived should have a share of our money, and God cannot but multiply for us every dirham we give as a good deed to the deserving and as alms for ourselves and our wealth. As for the stingy rich man who hoards money and hides it away, he is

deprived of it in his lifetime and abased by it, and he is most often an object of cursing and contempt in both abodes.

And finally, life has taught me — and I am certain that this is the most important thing I have learned from it so far — to find no pleasure

When the late great educator Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi passed into the presence of his Lord, his wife, the distinguished woman of letters Mrs. Anbara Salam Khalidi, was in London, visiting her children who are studying in the institutes of England; and a few days after her arrival the terrible blow took her by surprise, and she returned to Lebanon.

Here we publish a letter that came to her from her daughter, Miss Randa, a student at Oxford University, as a treasure among the treasures of undying feeling. She wrote:

My Mommy,

"... I do not know what to write to you, my darling.. I do not know how I can possibly express to you what I feel whenever I think of you. Why write, then, and what can I say — shall I console you, my life, and for whom... No, I shall not try to console; rather my duty is to write to you and ask you to take care of your health. For you are ours, Mama, as he was yours, and you are dear to us, Mama, as he was dear to you; for he left you to us, Mama — he left you to us, as he left us to you... So for our sake do not exhaust yourself, and for our sake be mistress of your emotions as you were here.. and before you went away.

... And we shall not let him go from us, Mama, and above all not from you; rather I and my brothers and sisters will hold fast to him and keep him always among us, for we are of him, and through us you will see him and speak with him.

He wearied himself enough, Mama, and he fell asleep. So let us leave him sleeping, for he needs rest, and let us try not to disturb him.. and let us do our best. He does not like to be disturbed..."

"... And as he wanted us to be, so shall we be — nay, better; and what he wanted us to do, we shall do; and what he began and did not finish, we shall finish. And we shall always remain proud of you and of him..."

"... And I, Mama, want to say to you that I believe in a tender, wise Lord who has a wide and spacious paradise; to this paradise Papa has gone, and to this Lord he has preceded us. Why, then, should we weep, if he is happy with his Lord! I believe in God with a strong faith, and I can imagine how much He loves Papa and esteems him — and that is why He chose him out from among all people. And eternal life must surely have an existence; and if it does not, then what is the soul, and what is man? ..."

"... And you, Mama — you, my soul — stay as he left you. But if you need me, my darling, and if you feel that I could be of use at your side, then send for me, for I am yours. He wants your rest before my education; so let me come to comfort you, and to remember him with you. Send for me, my life, for you need me now more than at any time that has passed. And if I am not with you now, then when shall I be? And I — I too find no rest except at your side, my life..."

Randa