joy, and his heart was warmed
with the pleasing sensations of affection and confidence, by the same
letter, from which ALMORAN had extracted the bitterness of jealousy and
resentment, and as he had no idea that an act of courtesy to his brother
could derogate from his own dignity or importance, he indulged the
honest impatience of his heart to communicate the pleasure with which it
overflowed: he was, indeed, somewhat disappointed, to find no traces of
satisfaction in the countenance of ALMORAN, when he saw the same paper
in his hand, which had impressed so much upon his own.

He waited some time after the first salutations, without mentioning the
scheme of government he was come to concert; because having observed
that ALMORAN was embarrassed and displeased, he expected that he would
communicate the cause, and pleased himself with the hope that he might
remove it: finding, however, that this expectation was disappointed, he
addressed him to this effect:

'How happy are we, my dear brother, in the wisdom and fidelity, of OMAR!
how excellent is the system of government that he has proposed! how easy
and honourable will it be to us that govern, and how advantageous to the
people that obey!'

'The advantages,' said ALMORAN, 'which you seem to have discovered, are
not evident to me: tell me, then, what you imagine they are, and I will
afterwards give you my opinion.'

'By establishing a system of laws as the rule of government,' said
HAMET, 'many evils will be avoided, and many benefits procured. If the
law is the will only of the sovereign, it can never certainly be known
to the people: many, therefore, may violate that rule of right, which
the hand of the Almighty has written upon the living tablets of the
heart, in the presumptuous hope, that it will not subject them to
punishment; and those, by whom that rule is fulfilled, will not enjoy
that consciousness of security, which they would derive from the
protection of a prescribed law, which they have never broken. Neither
will those who are inclined to do evil, be equally restrained by the
fear of punishment; if neither the offence is ascertained, nor the
punishment prescribed. One motive to probity, therefore, will be
wanting; which ought to be supplied, as well for the sake of those who
may be tempted to offend, as of those who may suffer by the offence.
Besides, he who governs not by a written and a public law, must either
administer that government in person, or b