e, and literature, and religion...."

And thus, until he reaches the heart of his subject; while the field
of daisies and poppies before him gently sways as under a soft morning
breeze; nods, as it were, its approbation.

"Truly," he continues, "religion is purely a work of the heart,--the
human heart, and the heart of the world as well. For have not the
three monotheistic religions been born in this very heart of the
world, in Arabia, Syria, and Palestine? And are not our Books of
Revelation the truest guides of life hitherto known to man? How then
are we to keep this Heart pure, to free it, in other words, from the
plagues I have named? And how, on the other hand, are we to strengthen
it, to quicken its sluggish blood? In a word, how are we to attain to
the pinnacle of health, and religion, and freedom,--of power, and
love, and light? By political revolutions, and insurrections, and
Dasturs? By blindly adopting the triple political tradition of France,
which after many years of terror and bloodshed, only gave Europe a new
Yoke, a new Tyranny, a new grinding Machine? No, my Brothers; not by
political nomenclature, not by political revolutions alone, shall the
nations be emancipated."

Whereupon Ahmed Bey begins to knit his brows; Shakib shakes his head,
biting his nether lip; and here and there in the audience is heard a
murmur about retrogression and reaction. Khalid proceeds with his
allegory of the Muleteer and the Pack-Mule.

"See, the panel of the Mule is changed; the load, too; and a few
short-cuts are made in the rocky winding road of statecraft and
tyranny. Ah, the stolid, patient, drudging Mule always exults in a new
Panel, which, indeed, seems necessary every decade, or so. For the old
one, when, from a sense of economy, or from negligence or stupidity,
is kept on for a length of time, makes the back sore, and the Mule
becomes kickish and resty. Hence, the plasters of conservative
homeopathists, the operations suggested by political leeches, the
radical cures of social quacks, and such like. But the Mule continues
to kick against the pricks; and the wise Muleteer, these days, when he
has not the price of a new Panel, or knows not how to make one, sells
him to the first bidder. And the new owner thereupon washes the sores
and wounds, applies to them a salve of the patent kind, buys his Mule
a new Panel, and makes him do the work. That is what I understand by a
political revolution.... And are the Ottoman p