The tractate on Love is a commentary on the Symposium; and the essay on
Destiny is Greek in spirit without a trace of Oriental fatalism, as you
may judge from the concluding sentence, which I leave you as his special
message: "Take heed to the limits of your capacity and you will arrive
at a knowledge of the truth! How true is the saying:--Work ever and to
each will come that measure of success for which Nature has designed
him." Avicenna died in his fifty-eighth year. When he saw that physic
was of no avail, resigning himself to the inevitable, he sold his goods,
distributed the money to the poor, read the Koran through once every
three days, and died in the holy month of Ramadan. His tomb at Hamadan,
the ancient Ecbatana, still exists, a simple brickwork building,
rectangular in shape, and surrounded by an unpretentious court. It was
restored in 1877, but is again in need of repair. The illustration here
shown is from a photograph sent by Dr. Neligan of Teheran. Though
dead, the great Persian has still a large practice, as his tomb is much
visited by pilgrims, among whom cures are said to be not uncommon.
(14) "L'hymne d'Avicenne" in: L'Elegie du Tograi, etc., par P.
Vattier, Paris, 1660.
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