Such was, and such should be, the punishment of unrestrained passions, and atrocious actions. Such is, and such should be, the chastisement of blind ambition, that would transgress those bounds which the Creator hath prescribed to human knowledge, and by aiming at discoveries reserved for pure intelligence, acquire that infatuated pride, which perceives not the condition appointed to man is, to be ignorant and humble.
Thus the Caliph Vathek who, for the sake of empty pomp and forbidden power, hath sullied himself with a thousand crimes, became a prey to grief without end, and remorse without mitigation; whilst the humble and despised Gulchenrouz passed whole ages in undisturbed tranquillity, and the pure happiness of childhood.
NOTES.
[7a] Caliph. This title amongst the Mahometans comprehends the concrete character of prophet, priest, and king; and is used to signify the Vicar of God on earth.—Habesci’s State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 9. Herbelot, p. 985.
[7b] One of his eyes became so terrible. The author of Nighiaristan hath preserved a fact that supports this account; and there is no history of Vathek, in which his terrible eye is not mentioned.
[8a] Omar Ben Abdalaziz. This Caliph was eminent above all others for temperance and self-denial; insomuch, that he is believed to have been raised to Mahomet’s bosom, as a reward for his abstinence in an age of corruption. Herbelot, p. 690.
[8b] Samarah. A city of the Babylonian Irak, supposed to have stood on the site where Nimrod erected his tower. Khondemir relates, in his life of Motassem, that this prince, to terminate the disputes which were perpetually happening between the inhabitants of Bagdat and his Turkish slaves, withdrew from thence; and, having fixed on a situation in the plain of Catoul, there founded Samarah. He is said to have had in the stables of this city a hundred and thirty thousand pied horses; each of which carried, by his order, a sack of earth to a place he had chosen. By this accumulation, an elevation was formed that commanded a view of all Samarah, and served for the foundation of his magnificent palace. Herbelot, p. 752, 808, 985. Anecdotes Arabes, p. 413.
[9] Houris. The Virgins of Paradise, called, from their large black eyes, Hur al oyun. An intercourse with these, according to the institution of Mahomet, is to constitute the principal felicity of the faithful. Not formed of clay, like mortal women, they are deemed in the highest degree beautiful, and exempt from every inconvenience incident to the sex. Al Koran; passim.
[10] Genii. Genn or Ginn, in the Arabic, signifies a Genius or Demon—a being of a higher order, and formed of more subtile matter than man. According to Oriental mythology, the Genii governed the world long before the creation of Adam. The Mahometans regarded them as an intermediate race between angels and men, and capable of salvation: whence Mahomet pretended a commission to convert them. Consonant to this, we read that, “When the servant of God stood up to invoke him, it wanted little but that the Genii had pressed on him in crowds, to hear him rehearse the Koran.” Herbelot, p. 357. Al Koran ch. 72.
[23] Accursed Giaour. Dives of this kind are frequently mentioned by Eastern writers. Consult their tales in general, and especially those of “The Fisherman,” “Aladdin,” and “The Princess of China.”