the holy breezes of Baha'u'llah, have become benevolent toward humanity.
Formerly, if they met anyone of another race, they tormented him and were
filled with the utmost enmity, hatred and malevolence; they went so far as
to throw dirt at him. They burned the Gospel and the Old Testament, and if
their hands were polluted by touching these books, they washed them. Today
the greater number of them recite and chant, as is suitable, the contents
of these two Books in their reunions and assemblies, and they expound
their esoteric teaching. They show hospitality to their enemies. They
treat the bloodthirsty wolves with gentleness, like gazelles in the plains
of the love of God. You have seen their customs and habits, and you have
heard of the manners of former Persians. This transformation of morals,
this improvement of conduct and of words, are they possible otherwise than
through the love of God? No, in the name of God. If, by the help of
science and knowledge, we wished to introduce these morals and customs,
truly it would take a thousand years, and then they would not be spread
throughout the masses.

Today, thanks to the love of God, they are arrived at with the greatest
facility.

Be admonished, O possessors of intelligence!

FOOTNOTES

1 On the idea of God, cf. "The Divinity Can Only Be Comprehended
through the Divine Manifestations," p. 146; and "Man's Knowledge of
God," p. 220.

The reader will there see that the Baha'i Faith has not an
anthropomorphic conception of God, and that if it employs a
customary terminology, it is careful to explain its symbolic
meaning.

2 Cf. Gen. 1:26.

3 Cf. Gen. 1:26.

4 Divine Manifestations are the founders of religions. Cf. "Two
Classes of Prophets," p. 164.

5 The Bab's descent was from Muhammad.

6 Cf. John 6:42.

7 The Banu-Tamim, one of the most barbarous Arab tribes, practiced
this odious custom.

8 To Medina.

9 Of 'Umar.

10 Cf. Jurji Zaydan's Umayyads and Abbasids, trans. D. S. Margoliouth.

11 Copernicus.

12 Cf. Qur'an 36:37.

13 Cf. Qur'an 36:38.

14 Galileo.

15 The Bab is here designated by His title Hadrat-i-A'la, His Supreme
Highness; but for the convenience of the reader we shall continue to
designate Him by the name under which He is known throughout
Europe--i.e., the Bab.

16 Doctors of the religion of