ts of the religious Houadir. May Allah and the Prophet
of the Faithful ever bless and preserve the innocence and chastity of
my dutiful and affectionate Urad!"

The widow Nouri spoke not again; her breath for ever fled from its
confinement, and her body was delivered to the waters of the Tigris.

The inconsolable Urad had now her most difficult lesson to learn from
the patient Houadir; and scarcely did she think it dutiful to moderate
the violence of her grief.

"Sorrows," said Houadir, "O duteous Urad, which arise from sin or evil
actions, cannot be assuaged without contrition or amendment of life;
there the soul is deservedly afflicted, and must feel before it can be
cured: such sorrows may my amiable pupil never experience! But the
afflictions of mortality are alike the portions of piety or iniquity:
it is necessary that we should be taught to part with the desirable
things of this life by degrees, and that by the frequency of such
losses our affections should be loosened from their earthly
attachments. While you continue good be not dejected, my obedient
Urad; and remember, it is one part of virtue to bear with patience and
resignation the unalterable decrees of Heaven; not but that I esteem
your sorrow, which arises from gratitude, duty, and affection. I do
not teach my pupil to part with her dearest friends without
reluctance, or wish her to be unconcerned at the loss of those who, by
a marvellous love, have sheltered her from all those storms which
must have overwhelmed helpless innocence. Only remember that your
tears be the tears of resignation, and that your sighs confess a heart
humbly yielding to His will who ordereth all things according to His
infinite knowledge and goodness."

"O pious Houadir," replied Urad, "just are thy precepts: it was Allah
that created my best of parents, and Allah is pleased to take her from
me; far be it from me, though an infinite sufferer, to dispute His
will; the loss indeed wounds me sorely, yet will I endeavour to bear
the blow with patience and resignation."

Houadir still continued her kind lessons and instructions, and Urad,
with a decent solemnity, attended both her labours and her teacher,
who was so pleased with the fruits which she saw spring forth from the
seeds of virtue that she had sown in the breast of her pupil, that she
now began to leave her more to herself, and exhorted her to set apart
some portion of each day to pray to her Prophet, and frequent
medita