n whom be God's mercy, never once closed my eyes during
the whole night, and held the precious Koran open on my lap, while the
company around us were fast asleep. I said to my father: "Not an
individual of these will raise his head that he may perform his
genuflections, or ritual of prayer; but they are all so sound asleep,
that you might conclude they were dead." He replied: "O emanation of
your father, you had also better have slept than that you should thus
calumniate the failings of mankind.--The braggart can discern only his
own precious person; he will draw the veil of conceit all around him.
Were fortune to bestow upon him God's all-searching eye, he would find
nobody weaker than himself."
* * * * *
X
On one occasion, at the metropolitan mosque of Balbek, I was holding
forth, by way of admonition to a congregation cold and dead at heart,
and not to be moved from the materialism of this world into the paths of
mysticism. I perceived that the spirit of my discourse was making no
impression, nor were the sparks of my enthusiasm likely to strike fire
into their humid wood. I grew weary of instructing brutes, and of
holding up a mirror to an assembly of the blind; but the door of
exposition was thrown open, and the chain of argument extended; and in
explanation of this text in the Koran--_We are nearer to him_ (God)
_than the vein of his neck_.--I had reached that passage of my sermon
where I thus express myself:--"Such a mistress as is closer to me in her
affection than I am to myself, but this is marvellous that I am
estranged from her. What shall I say, and to whom can I tell it, that
she lies on my bosom and I am alienated from her."
The intoxicating spirit of this discourse ran into my head, and the
dregs of the cup still rested in my hand, when a traveller, as passing
by, entered the outer circle of the congregation, and its expiring
undulation lit upon him. He sent forth such a groan that the others in
sympathy with him joined in lamentation, and the rawest of the assembly
bubbled in unison. I exclaimed, "Praise be to God! those far off are
present in their knowledge, and those near by are distant from their
ignorance. If the hearer has not the faculty of comprehending the
sermon, expect not the vigor of genius in the preacher. Give a scope to
the field of inclination, that the orator may have room to strike the
ball of eloquence over it."
XI
One night in the des
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