hing which you ask of me is both difficult and useless.
Although I have passed all my days in this place, I have
neither counted the houses nor inquired into the number of the
inhabitants; and as to what one person loads on his mules and
the other stows away in the bottom of his ship, that is no
business of mine. But above all, as to the previous history
of this city, God only knows the amount of dirt and confusion
that the infidels may have eaten before the coming of the
sword of Islam. It were unprofitable for us to inquire into
it.... Listen, O my son! There is no wisdom equal to the
belief in God! He created the world, and shall we liken
ourselves unto him in seeking to penetrate into the mysteries
of his creation? Shall we say, Behold this star spinneth round
that star, and this other star with a tail goeth and cometh
in so many years? Let it go! He from whose hand it came will
guide and direct it.... Thou art learned in the things I care
not for, and as for that which thou hast seen, I spit upon it.
Will much knowledge create thee a double belly, or wilt thou
seek paradise with thine eyes?...

The meek in spirit, IMAUM ALI ZADI.[264]

The works of Sir Henry Maine, who gained by his long residence in
India a profound insight into the oriental character, frequently point
out that the eastern pride in conservatisms is quite as real as the
western pride in progress:

Vast populations, some of them with a civilization
considerable but peculiar, detest that which in the language
of the West would be called reform. The entire Mohammedan
world detests it. The multitudes of colored men who swarm in
the great continent of Africa detest it, and it is detested by
that large part of mankind which we are accustomed to leave on
one side as barbarous or savage. The millions upon millions of
men who fill the Chinese Empire loathe it and (what is more)
despise it.... There are few things more remarkable, and in
their way more instructive, than the stubborn incredulity
and disdain which a man belonging to the cultivated part of
Chinese society opposes to the vaunts of western civilization
which he frequently hears.... There is in India a minority,
educated at the feet of English politicians and in books
saturated with English political ideas, which has learned to
repea