I was twenty years old before
his tenderness would expose me to the fatigue of travel, in which time I
had been instructed, by successive masters, in all the literature of my
native country. As every hour taught me something new, I lived in a
continual course of gratifications; but, as I advanced towards manhood,
I lost much of the reverence with which I had been used to look on my
instructers; because, when the lesson was ended, I did not find them
wiser or better than common men.
"At length my father resolved to initiate me in commerce, and, opening
one of his subterranean treasuries, counted out ten thousand pieces of
gold. This, young man, said he, is the stock with which you must
negotiate. I began with less than the fifth part, and you see how
diligence and parsimony have increased it. This is your own, to waste or
to improve. If you squander it by negligence or caprice, you must wait
for my death, before you will be rich: if, in four years, you double
your stock, we will thenceforward let subordination cease, and live
together as friends and partners; for he shall always be equal with me,
who is equally skilled in the art of growing rich.
"We laid our money upon camels, concealed in bales of cheap goods, and
travelled to the shore of the Red sea. When I cast my eye on the expanse
of waters, my heart bounded like that of a prisoner escaped.
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