Almoran and Hamet: An Oriental Tale

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Almoran and Hamet, by John Hawkesworth

Sir,
Amidst the congratulations and praises of a free, a joyful, and now united people, people, who are ambitious to express their duty and
their wishes in their various classes; I think myself happy to have Your Majesty's most gracious permission to approach You, and, after the manner of the people whose character I have assumed, to bring an humble offering in my hand.
As some part of my subject led me to consider the advantages of our
excellent constitution in comparison of others; my thoughts were naturally turned to Your Majesty, as its warmest friend and most powerful protector: and as the whole is intended, to recommend the practice of virtue, as the means of happiness; to whom could I address it with so much propriety, as to a Prince, who illustrates and enforces
the precepts of the moralist by his life.
John Hawkesworth.
Who is he among the children of the earth, that repines at the power of the wicked? and who is he, that would change the lot of the righteous? He, who has appointed to each his portion, is God; the Omniscient and the Almighty, who fills eternity, and whose existence is from Himself!
but he who murmurs, is man; who yesterday was not, and who to-morrow shall be forgotten: let him listen in silence to the voice of knowlege, and hide the blushes of confusion in the dust.
Solyman, the mighty and the wife, who, in the one hundred and second year of the Hegyra, sat upon the throne of Persia, had two sons, Almoran and Hamet, and they were twins. Almoran was the first born, but Solyman divided his affection equally between them: they were both lodged in the same part of the seraglio, both were attended by the same servants, and both received instructions from the same teacher.