The Wages of Sin. 
65 
4.  This passage means that “ the devil always 
leaves you in the lurch ” as Spurgeon said.  Howev-
er devoted one may be to vice, sooner or later it 
tires and gives no more pleasure. The same is of 
course true of virtue ;  but, to the mystic, virtue, as 
such, is itself vice.  Cf.  “ All your righteousness is 
as filthy rags.” 
5.  Shahrava. A king who forced a leather cur-
rency on his subjects.  Dildos in Persia being 
usually made of leather, the jest is double-
edged.  To present a dildo, or anything which 
might by any possibility be used as such, to a 
courtesan is a deadly insult, implying “ You cannot 
attract a live man ”, and she will assuredly have 
you murdered sooner or later if she can. 
6.  A proverb and a pun, [Persian text] denial, 
[Persian text] splendour.