“Here then was my every wish fulfilled! Here was the best of company, the most dignified of position, the most charming of climates, surroundings of wealth, luxury and ease; the culture of a thousand years; all that our religion permits in art and entertainment. Books of every language and climate. Stores of good from every sky under heaven, from every people and of every age. Here, indeed, might I live my life without further adventure or negotiation. What pleased me most was to think that I would be able to escape some little strains I might have to put upon my honour—though not I am glad to say upon my conscience—in the rude struggle of the outer world. No one here knew my humble beginnings, or in too much detail the particular abilities whereby I had so rapidly enriched myself.
“I was now one of the great lords, and very soon the foundation of my fortune would be lost in the mists of time. Men would easily come to believe that my fathers had acquired it, sword in hand, when first the banner of the Prophet was seen upon those hills three hundred years before.
“I will not detain you with the happy disposition of my time, nor with more than the statement of my supreme enjoyment. Scrolls from every land I accumulated in my library, I had about me the most costly stuffs and upon my person and upon those of my attendants the rarest gems. My chief delight was to gather at my table a small, but various, band of intimates; chief of whom was that earnest, intelligent young man of the Council whom I noted on my first arrival. Tarib, as I have told you, was his simple name; and I learned how his father had been no more than a respected merchant in offal. Dying, he had left his son a sufficient income, and that son had so added to it by occasions of public service that he had now risen to one of the highest offices of State. It was his special function in the Council to represent and to retail to the King whatever popular movement was abroad, for he was known to every class in the city. He was the intermediary between King and people, was regarded in some way as a Tribune: or, as his title went, ‘The Doubler,’ which term, already centuries old, some derived from his double function, others from the attitude which etiquette demanded him to assume to Monarch and subjects alike. Others again put it down to the emoluments of his post.
“Through him I learned to understand this kindly, industrious and most loyal people. In my walks with him, and by my regular attendance at his public addresses, I grew intimate with that character in the people of Izmat which had led to their great reputation throughout the world.
“It was their pride that they never shook the State by violent change, but with gradual and well-weighed reforms adapted themselves generation by generation to the movement of the world. They thought disdainfully of nationalities controlled by less powerful traditions; for a man of great fortune like myself, it was therefore an ever-pleasing thought—the foundation I might say of my happiness—to consider the peace and solidity all about me. That portion of the populace (about one half) which lay upon the verge of starvation were manfully content with their lot, or, if they showed some beginning of complaint, were at once appeased when they had pointed out to them their superiority over the miserable foreigners of the Mainland; while those who (like myself) were possessed of vast revenues and lived in great palaces were far too devoted to the Commonwealth to dream of grumbling at their lot. They would, upon the contrary, frequently express their devotion to State and King, and prove it by doing for the common weal, unpaid, as much as three hours’ work in a day; or even four when there was a press of business.
“Thus, one would maintain the magnificent breed of horses by his devotion to the chase; another would support the industry of the goldsmith by his frequent purchase of ornaments; another would, as a local magistrate, condemn the poorest of his district to various terms of imprisonment; another, though in no way bound to do so, would write a book—the description, perhaps, of his tastes in food, or a recollection of those men and women of the wealthier sort whom he had met in the course of his useful life. Yet another would contribute to the health of the State by the continual practice of commerce, to which these people were very much devoted. There was hardly one of this rich class in which I now mixed, but had his chosen work thoroughly accomplished. The content of the poor, the public spirit of the rich, welded the whole of that society into a sort of paradise; but most noble of all and most worthy of this people was this young Tribune Tarib.
“He it was who talked most incessantly and before the largest gatherings, thus creating a taste for public discussion. He it was who discussed practical remedies whenever discontent appeared, and he who worked out every detail in the interesting reports upon the condition of the starving. To the thousands whom he addressed his manner never grew stale. His eloquence was sober, his speeches with praise of Izmat and quotations from the Sacred Books, as also with known jests—things which this practical people infinitely preferred to empty theories of the Mainland. So all went well; and I (blind to the future, alas!) went down that path of statesmanship along which my friend led me, little knowing whither it would lead me.
“I did not often speak myself at the public meetings so frequently held (they were indeed the noble pastime of this patriot folk), lest my foreign accent should hurt my dignity. For I had not yet a complete command of the language, though it was now two years since I had become a citizen and subject of the Monarch to whom we were all so devoted. But I would sit by the side of my friend Tarib and others as they harangued the populace in the open places of the city or, upon occasions, in the mosques. On such occasions I would show by my smiles and applause my approval of all that was said for the betterment of the poor or the rich, as the case might be, and I always laughed at the ritual jests, sometimes even before they were delivered. In this way I grew familiar with most of those in the capital and with many of the provincial towns, and hoped to conquer general favour.
“I was present when Ibn Rashn delivered his great harangue to a vast assembly, denouncing the foreign practice of marrying a fifth wife—which abomination there was some danger of seeing introduced into his beloved land. I was present also when the same great and eloquent man gave his second great harangue, insisting upon the necessity of fifth wives and carrying that reform by acclamation as a law. Seated with others on the raised platform which surrounded the orator I applauded the Grand Vizier in his solemn declaration against shaving, a thing (said he) abhorrent to every true believer, and heard the sway of argument for and against the custom; which (I am glad to say) was afterwards put down with the utmost severity of the law. But my happiest memories are still of those numerous days when my intimate the Tribune Tarib—who could never be accused of any petty thing—poured forth his soul upon the poverty of the commons and extolled to them the national pride and glory of doing nothing to change it: in which principles he was applauded with frenzy. This spirit was peculiar to this happy land and no one expressed it in wiser or more memorable terms than he who was now my bosom friend.
“But there came a time—I had been in Izmat about three years—when it was clearly necessary to strike a new note.