54 
"On Meanness" 
Cara Soror, 
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 
Yes, indeed! As you surmise, the injunction to "buy the 
egg of a perfectly black hen without haggling" is another way 
of putting the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price; a much 
better way. For the Pearl-buyer did think of equating the 
values, which is precisely what one must not do. That Egg is 
incommensurable with money. 
(Further, the saying teaches one to insist on perfection; the 
hen must not have one tinge of aught but black in any 
feather.) 
To begin, Economy does not mean thrift or cheeseparing. 
It means: the law of the house. In practice , one may say 
"management." Finances are only one branch of the science, 
just as truckling , blackmail, 
graft, 
treachery and 
double-dealing 
are only components 
of modern 
sta tesmanship . 
Firstly 
(dearly 
beloved brethren) 
meanness is flat 
contradiction to the Teaching of The Book of the Law. For 
The word of Sin is Restriction , and meanness is plainly a 
most flagrant case of Restriction. Also, there is nearly always 
an element of Fear in meanness; at least, I would like to bet 
that 95 percent of mean people originally became so because 
they foresaw a friendless and penniless old age. And fear is 
particularly forbidden in the Book: III: 16: "fear not to 
undergo the curses." Waxing in wrath , III: 17 goes on: "Fear 
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