SECT. VI.
XIX. This is not the greatest inequality discernible; the most striking consists, in the different security consequent to the one and the other mode of conduct. The left-handed politician, both while he is seeking his fortune, and even after he has obtained it, is exposed to great danger. It is impossible, or next to impossible, that the artifices and mal-practices of a man beset and watched by many rivals, should not be discovered; and when these are once laid open, as this was the cement of the whole fabric, its being reduced to ruins will not be delayed an instant. It is very difficult says father Famianus Estrada, for him to avoid a sudden fall, who stands on slippery ground, and is press’d upon by many people: Difficile est in lubrico stare diu, quem plures impellunt. This is the state of a deceitful politician; he walks through a very slippery path, and is always upon false ground. The people who labour to pull him down consist, of all those who either envy his fortune, or abhor his evil deeds; which is as much as to say, he has for enemies, both the good and the bad. How can a man so circumstanced, support himself for any length of time? he must be overthrown, and, as it frequently happens, may in his fall be dashed to pieces: an energetic description of this is sung by Claudian:
————Jam non ad culmina rerum
Injustos crevisse queror: tolluntur in altum
Ut lapsu graviore ruant.
XX. The upright politician, on the contrary, meets no dangers on his road, and has nothing to fear at his journey’s end. He is the more safe, the more the grounds of his conduct are displayed. He has fewer enemies than the other, because they can consist of none but bad people. In case he is overthrown, his fall will not be precipitate and violent, but soft and easy. His innocence will at least preserve his life; and the worst that can befal him, is being reduced to his former state; but it most commonly happens, that evil-intentioned people do not succeed in their attacks upon him, and that the shafts of their malice recoil and wound themselves, which oftentimes, affords honour and triumph to the party accused. The history of a politician of integrity, although an infidel by his religion, occurs to me at present, which is very applicable to the subject we are treating of. The relation is taken from Tavernier’s Voyages, and it being new and pleasant, I shall give a brief recital of it.
XXI. Mahomed Alibeg, high steward to the King of Persia, was, from being a poor shepherd, raised to that elevated post, in the beginning of the last century. The King, one day when he was hunting, met with him in the mountains, where he was playing on his flute, and attending his flocks. For his amusement, he asked him some questions, and, taken with the vivacity and acuteness of the lad’s answers, he carried him with him to his palace; where having him instructed, the rectitude of his heart, and the clearness of his understanding, soon gained the affection and confidence of the King, who advanc’d him rapidly from charge to charge, till he at last placed him in the office of high steward. His inflexible integrity, and his aversion to bribes, a thing very rare among the Mahometans, raised him powerful enemies; but finding him so thoroughly possessed of the confidence of his master, they could not venture to act in a hostile way against him during the King’s life. After his death, when his successor who was a young man mounted the throne, they suggested to him, that Mahomet had subtracted vast sums from the Royal Treasury. The Prince ordered him to make up his accounts in fifteen days, to which Mahomet replied with intrepidity, that so much delay was not necessary, and that if his Majesty would be pleased to go with him immediately to the Treasury Office, he would there deliver them to him. The King went, followed by all the accusers, but he found every thing in such fine order, and the books of accounts so exactly and accurately stated, with which all other circumstances corresponded, that nobody had a word to say. From thence the King proceeded to Mahomet’s house, where he could not help admiring the moderation of the furniture, and the poverty of the decorations. One of the enemies of the favourite observing the door of a room shut, and secured with three strong chains, hinted it to the King, who asked Mahomet what he had got shut up in that room. Sir, answered Mahomet, here I keep my own things, all you have hitherto seen belongs to your Majesty; and having said this he opened the door. The King entered the room, and after looking all round, saw nothing but the following particulars hanging on nails drove into the wall. A leathern doublet, a wallet, a shepherd’s crook, and a flute. The King was viewing them with astonishment, when Mahomet throwing himself at his feet, said, Sir, this is the habit, and these are the goods which I was possessed of, when the King your father brought me to court. These were what belonged to me then, and these are what I have now, and these only I claim as my own; and as they are so, I supplicate with the greatest submission, that your Majesty will permit me to enjoy them, by returning to the mountains from whence my fortune brought me forth. Here the King, unable to refrain from tears, embraced the generous favourite; and not content with this mark of his approbation, immediately stript off his royal robes, and ordered Mahomet to wear them, which in Persia, is esteemed the highest honour a King can confer on a subject. The result of all this, was, that Mahomet during his whole life after, preserved the firm confidence and love of his Prince. What pity it is, that this disinterestedness, this nobleness of mind, this rectitude, this moderation, should be all lodged in an infidel!