The Coffee-House of Surat

(After Bernardin de Saint-Pierre)

In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffee-house where many travellers
and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed.

One day a learned Persian theologian visited this coffee-house. He
was a man who had spent his life studying the nature of the Deity,
and reading and writing books upon the subject. He had thought,
read, and written so much about God, that eventually he lost his
wits, became quite confused, and ceased even to believe in the
existence of a God. The Shah, hearing of this, had banished him
from Persia.

After having argued all his life about the First Cause, this
unfortunate theologian had ended by quite perplexing himself, and
instead of understanding that he had lost his own reason, he began
to think that there was no higher Reason controlling the universe.

This man had an African slave who followed him everywhere. When the
theologian entered the coffee-house, the slave remained outside, near
the door, sitting on a stone in the glare of the sun, and driving
away the flies that buzzed around him. The Persian having settled
down on a divan in the coffee-house, ordered himself a cup of opium.
When he had drunk it and the opium had begun to quicken the workings
of his brain, he addressed his slave through the open door:

"Tell me, wretched slave," said he, "do you think there is a God, or not?"

"Of course there is," said the slave, and immediately drew from under
his girdle a small idol of wood.

"There," said he, "that is the God who has guarded me from the day
of my birth. Every one in our country worships the fetish tree,
from the wood of which this God was made."

This conversation between the theologian and his slave was listened
to with surprise by the other guests in the coffee-house. They
were astonished at the master's question, and yet more so at the
slave's reply.

One of them, a Brahmin, on hearing the words spoken by the slave,
turned to him and said:

"Miserable fool! Is it possible you believe that God can be carried
under a man's girdle? There is one God--Brahma, and he is greater
than the whole world, for he created it. Brahma is the One, the
mighty God, and in His honour are built the temples on the Ganges'
banks, where his true priests, the Brahmins, worship him. They know
the true God, and none but they. A thousand score of years have
passed, and yet through revolution after revolution these priests
have held their sway, because Brahma, the one true God, has
protected them."

So spoke the Brahmin, thinking to convince every one; but a Jewish
broker who was present replied to him, and said: