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YTHAGORAS being asked, in what man could refemble the Divinity? juftly anfwered, "In beneficence and truth."

In the Perfian Chronicle of the five hundred and thirteenth year of the Heigyra, it is thus written.

Of the Letter of COSROU, the Iman. It pleafed our mighty fovereign, Abbas Carafcan, from whom the kings of the earth derive honour and dominion, to fet Mirza, his fervant, over the province of Tauris. In the hand of Mirza the balance of diftribution was fufpended with impartiality; and under his administration the weak were protected, the learned received honour, and the diligent became rich: Mirza, therefore, was beheld by every eye with complacency, and every tongue pronounced bleffings upon his head. But it was obferved that he derived no joy from the benefits which he diffused: he became penfive and melancholy; he fpent his leifure in folitude; in his palace he fat motionless upon a fofa; and when he went out, his walk was flow, and his eyes were fixed upon the ground: he applied to the bufinefs of ftate with reluctance, and refolved to relinquish the toil of government, of which he could no longer

enjoy the reward. He therefore obtained permiffion to approach the throne of our fovereign; and being afked, what was his request? he made this reply" May the lord of the world forgive the flave whom he has honoured, if Mirza prefume again feet. Thou haft given me the domito lay the bounty of Abbas at his nion of a country fruitful as the gardens of Damafcus; a city, glorious above all others, except that only which reflects the fplendour of thy prefence. But the longeft life is a period fearce fufficient to prepare for death; all other bufinefs is vain and trivial, as the toil of emmets in the path of the traveller, under whose foot they perifh for ever, and all enjoyment is unsubstantial and evanescent, as the colours of the bow that appears in the interval of a ftorm. Suffer me, therefore, to prepare for the approach of eternity; let me give up my foul to meditation; let folitude and filence acquaint me with the myfteries of devotion; let me forget the world, and by the world be forgotten, till the moment arrives, in which the veil of eternity fhall fall, and I fhall be found at the bar of the Almighty." Mirza then bowed himself to the earth, and food filent.-By the command of Abbas it is recorded, that

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at these words he trembled upon that throne, at the footitool of which the world pays homage: he looked round upon his nobles; but every countenance was pale, and every eye was upon the earth. No man opened his mouth; and the king firft broke filence, after it had continued near an hour.

"Mirza, terror and doubt are come upon me. I am alarmed as a man who fuddenly perceives that he is near the brink of a precipice, and is urged forward by an irrefiftible force: but yet I know not whether my danger is a reality or a dream. I am as thou art, a reptile of the earth; my life is a moment; and eternity, in which days, and years, and ages are nothing, eternity is before me, for which I alfo fhould prepare: but by whom then must the faithful be governed by thofe only who have no fear of judgment? by thofe only whofe life is brutal, becaufe, like brutes, they do not confider that they fhall die? or who indeed are the faithful? are the bufy multitudes that croud the city, in a ftate of perdition? and is the cell of the Dervife alone the gate of paradise ?

"To all the life of a Dervife is not poffible; to all, therefore, it cannot be a duty. Depart to the houfe which has in this city been prepared for thy refidence: I will meditate the reafon of thy requeft; and may he who illuminates the mind of the humble, enable me to determine with wifdom!"

Mirza departed, and on the third day, having received no command, he again requested an audience, and it was granted. When he entered the royal prefence, his countenance appeared more cheerful; he drew a letter from his bofom, and, having kifled it, he prefented it with his right hand. "My lord," faid he, "I have learned of this letter, which I received from Cofrou, the Iman, who

now stands before thee, in what manner life may be beft improved. I am enabled to look back with pleasure, and forward with hope; and I fhall now rejoice ftill to be the fhadow of thy power at Tauris, and to keep thofe honours which I fo lately wished to refign." The King, who had liftened to Mirza with a mixture of furprize and curiofity, immediately gave the letter to Cofrou, and commanded that it should be read. The eyes of the Court were at once turned upon the hoary fage, whose countenance was fuffused with an honeft blufh; and it was not without fome hesitation that he read these words :

"To Mirza, whom the wifdom of Abbas, our mighty lord, has hanoured with dominion, be everlasting health! When I heard thy purpofe to withdraw the bleffings of thy government from the thousands of Tauris, my heart was wounded with the arrow of affliction, and my eyes became dim with forrow. But who fhall fpeak before the King when he is troubled? and who shall boast of knowledge when he is diftreffed by doubt? To thee I will relate the events of my youth, which thou haft renewed before me; and those truths which they taught me, may the Prophet multiply to thee.

"Under the inftruction of the phyfician Alevzar, I obtained an early knowledge of his art. To those who were fmitten with difeafe, I could adminifter plants, which the fun has impregnated with the fpirit of health. But the fcenes of pain, langour, and mortality, which were perpetually rifing before me, made me often tremble for myfelf. I faw the grave open at my feet; I determined, therefore, to contemplate only the regions beyond it, and to defpife every acquifition which I could not keep. I conceived an opinion, that as there was no merit but in voluntary poverty, and filent meditation, thofe who de