Kahlil Gibran on Crime and Punishment

[Guest guest]

Another author with a certain style that is irrepressible....

 

Kahlil Gibran on Crime & Punishment:"Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one

who commits a wrongas though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you

and anintruder upon your world.

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyondthe highest

which is in each one of you,So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lowerthan

the lowest which is in you also.

And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silentknowledge of the whole

tree,So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong withoutthe hidden will of you all.

Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.You are the way and

the wayfarers.And when one of you falls down, he falls forthose behind him a

caution against the stumbling stone.Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him,

who thoughfaster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.And

this also, though the word lie heavy upon your hearts:The murdered is not

unaccountable forhis own murder,And the robbed is not blameless in being

robbed.The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,And the

white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.Yea, the guilty is

oftentimes the victim of the injured,And still more often the condemned is the

burden bearerfor the guiltless and unblamed.

You cannot separate the just from the unjustand the good from the wicked;For

they stand together before the faceof the sun even as the black thread andthe

white are woven together.And when the black thread breaks, the weavershall look

into the whole cloth, and heshall examine the loom also.If any of you would

bring to judgementthe unfaithful wife,Let him also weigh the heart of her

husband in scales, andmeasure his soul with measurements.And let him who would

lash the offenderlook unto the spirit of the offended.And if any of you would

punish in the name ofrighteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree,let him

see to its roots;And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad,the

fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined togetherin the silent heart of the

earth.

And you judges who would be just,What judgement pronounce you upon himwho though

honest in the flesh yet is a thiefin the spirit?What penalty lay you upon him

who slays in theflesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?And how prosecute you

him who in action is a deceiverand an oppressor,Yet who also is aggrieved and

outraged?And how shall you punish those whose remorse isalready greater than

their misdeeds?Is not remorse the justice which is administered bythat very law

which you would fain serve?Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocentnor lift

it from the heart of the guilty.Unbidden shall it call in the night, that

menmay wake and gaze upon themselves.And you who would understand justice,how

shall you unless you look upon all deedsin the fullness of light?

Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallenare but one man standing

in twilight between the night ofhis pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,And

that the corner-stone of the temple is not higherthan the lowest stone in its

foundation."