Chapter XLII. Of the counsels Don Quixote gave Sancho Panza before he went to govern the isle, with other well-considered matters

The duke and duchess were so pleased with the happy and amusing outcome of the adventure of the Sorrowing One that they resolved to carry the jests further, seeing what a fit subject they had for having them taken in earnest; and so, having laid out the plan and the orders their servants and vassals were to follow with Sancho in his government of the promised isle, the next day, which was the day after Clavileño’s flight, the duke told Sancho to spruce himself up and make ready to take up his governorship, since his islanders were longing for him like rain in May. Sancho bowed low to him and said:

“Ever since I came down from the sky, and ever since I looked at the earth from up on its high summit and saw how small it was, the great longing I had to be a governor has cooled off in me somewhat; because what greatness is there in giving orders on a grain of mustard seed, or what dignity or power in governing half a dozen men the size of hazelnuts, for to my mind there weren’t any more than that on the whole earth? If your lordship would be pleased to give me a tiny little bit of the sky, even if it were no more than half a league, I’d take it more gladly than the biggest isle in the world.”

“Look, Sancho my friend,” answered the duke, “I cannot give a piece of the sky to anyone, even if it is no bigger than a fingernail, for such favors and graces are reserved to God alone. What I can give, I give you, and that is an isle, whole and entire, round and well proportioned, and exceedingly fertile and abundant, where, if you know how to manage, you can use the riches of the earth to earn those of heaven.”

“Well, then,” answered Sancho, “let that isle come, and I’ll strive to be such a governor that I go to heaven in spite of all the rogues; and this isn’t out of any greed I have to get above myself or to rise to bigger things, but out of the wish I have to find out what being a governor tastes like.”

“Once you taste it, Sancho,” said the duke, “you will be gnawing your hands off for more of governing, so sweet a thing it is to command and be obeyed. I am quite certain that when your master comes to be an emperor, as he will without a doubt, the way his affairs are heading, nobody will tear it from him easily, and that it will grieve him and weigh on half his soul to think of all the time he went without being one.”

“Sir,” replied Sancho, “I imagine it’s a good thing to command, even if it’s only a herd of cattle.”

“I would gladly be buried at your side, Sancho, for you know something of everything,” answered the duke, “and I hope you will be as good a governor as your judgment promises; and let us leave it there, and bear in mind that tomorrow, on this very day, you are to go to the government of the isle, and this afternoon they will fit you out with the proper dress you are to wear and with all the things you need for your departure.”

“Let them dress me however they like,” said Sancho, “for whatever way I go dressed, I’ll be Sancho Panza.”

“That is true,” said the duke, “but dress must suit the office or rank a man professes, for a jurist dressed as a soldier would be out of place, and so would a soldier dressed as a priest. You, Sancho, will go dressed partly as a man of letters and partly as a captain, because the isle I am giving you has as much need of arms as of letters, and of letters as of arms.”

“Letters,” answered Sancho, “I have few of, because I don’t even know my ABC yet; but having the Christ-cross in my memory is enough to make me a good governor. Arms, now: I’ll handle whatever they give me, till I drop, and God before me.”

“With a memory as good as that,” said the duke, “Sancho can make no mistake in anything.”

At this Don Quixote arrived, and, learning what was going on and with what speed Sancho was to leave for his government, with the duke’s leave he took him by the hand and went off with him to his room, meaning to counsel him on how he ought to conduct himself in his office.

Once they were inside his chamber, then, he shut the door behind him, and made Sancho, almost by force, sit down next to him, and said to him in an unhurried voice:

“I give infinite thanks to heaven, Sancho my friend, that before, and sooner than, I have met with any good luck of my own, good fortune has come out to receive and meet you. I, who had counted on my own good fortune to pay you for your services, find myself only at the beginnings of advancement, and you, before your time, against the law of reasonable expectation, see your wishes rewarded. Others bribe, pester, solicit, rise early, beg, insist, and do not obtain what they seek; and another comes along, and without knowing how or how not, finds himself with the post and office that many others sought; and here it is apt and fitting to say that there is good and bad luck in the seeking of posts. You, who to my mind are beyond any doubt a blockhead, without rising early or sitting up late and without taking any pains at all, with nothing but the breath of knight-errantry that has touched you, see yourself, just like that, governor of an isle, as if it were nothing at all. All this I say, O Sancho, so that you will not put down the favor you have received to your own merits, but will give thanks to heaven, which disposes things gently, and after that to the greatness that the profession of knight-errantry holds within it. With your heart disposed, then, to believe what I have told you, be attentive, O my son, to this Cato of yours, who wishes to counsel you and to be the north star and guide that will set you on your way and bring you out into a safe harbor from this stormy sea where you are about to launch yourself; for offices and great posts are nothing but a deep gulf of confusions. First, O my son, you must fear God, for in fearing him lies wisdom, and being wise you will not be able to go wrong in anything. Second, you must fix your eyes on who you are, and try to know yourself, which is the hardest knowledge that can be imagined. From knowing yourself will come your not puffing yourself up like the frog that wanted to make itself as big as the ox; for if you do this, the thought of having kept pigs in your own country will come to be the ugly feet beneath the peacock’s fan of your folly.”

“That’s the truth,” answered Sancho, “but it was when I was a boy; and later, when I was something of a little man, it was geese I kept, not pigs; but this, it seems to me, is beside the point, for not everyone who governs comes of the stock of kings.”

“That is true,” replied Don Quixote, “and for that reason those who are not of noble beginnings must pair the gravity of the office they hold with a mild gentleness that, guided by prudence, will free them from malicious gossip, which no station in life escapes. Glory, Sancho, in the humbleness of your lineage, and do not scorn to say that you come of farmers; for when people see that you are not ashamed, no one will set about shaming you; and take more pride in being humble and virtuous than in being a proud sinner. Countless are those who, born of low stock, have risen to the highest dignity of pope and emperor; and of this truth I could bring you so many examples that they would weary you. Look, Sancho: if you take virtue for your means, and pride yourself on doing virtuous deeds, there is no reason to envy those whose deeds come down to them from princes and lords, because blood is inherited and virtue is acquired, and virtue is worth by itself alone what blood is not worth. This being so, as it is, if one of your relatives should happen to come and see you when you are in your isle, do not turn him away or insult him; rather you must receive him, make much of him, and entertain him, for with this you will satisfy heaven, which is pleased when no one scorns what it has made, and you will answer to what you owe to well-ordered nature. If you bring your wife with you (because it is not good for those who are engaged in governments for a long time to be without their own), teach her, instruct her, and smooth off her natural roughness, because all that a sensible governor usually gains, a rustic and foolish wife usually loses and squanders. If you should happen to be widowed, a thing that may come to pass, and with your post you should better your match, do not take one who will serve you as hook and fishing rod, and as the ‘no, I won’t have it’ that still lands in your hood; for truly I tell you that for everything the judge’s wife receives, the husband will have to give account at the universal reckoning of his term, where in death he will pay fourfold for the items he did not answer for in life. Never be guided by the law of your own fancy, which tends to find great favor with ignorant men who set up to be clever. Let the tears of the poor man find more compassion in you, but not more justice, than the pleadings of the rich. Try to discover the truth amid the promises and gifts of the rich man as much as amid the sobs and importunities of the poor. When equity can and should have its place, do not lay the whole rigor of the law on the offender, for the fame of the harsh judge is no better than that of the compassionate one. If you should happen to bend the rod of justice, let it not be under a gift’s weight, but under mercy’s. When it falls to you to judge some lawsuit of an enemy of yours, put your mind away from the injury done to you and set it on the truth of the case. Do not let your own passion blind you in another man’s cause, for the mistakes you make in it will most often be beyond remedy; and if they have one, it will be at the cost of your good name, and even of your estate. If some beautiful woman should come to ask you for justice, take your eyes from her tears and your ears from her moans, and consider at leisure the substance of what she asks, unless you want your reason to drown in her weeping and your goodness in her sighs. The man you must punish with deeds, do not ill-treat with words, for the pain of the punishment is enough for the wretch without the addition of harsh language. The guilty man who falls under your jurisdiction, consider him a miserable man, subject to the conditions of our depraved nature, and in everything that lies on your side, without doing wrong to the opposing party, show yourself merciful and clement to him, because, although the attributes of God are all equal, the attribute of mercy shines and stands out more in our sight than that of justice. If you follow these precepts and these rules, Sancho, your days will be long, your fame eternal, your rewards brimming, your happiness beyond telling; you will marry off your children as you please, titles will be theirs and your grandchildren’s, you will live in peace and in the goodwill of the people, and in the last steps of your life the step of death will overtake you, in a gentle, ripe old age, and your eyes will be closed by the tender and delicate hands of your great-grandchildren. What I have told you so far are instructions that are to adorn your soul; listen now to those that are to serve for the adornment of the body.”