ness
guided by wisdom: He approves the means, only as necessary to the end;
He wounds only to heal, and destroys only to save; He has complacence,
not in the evil, but in the good only which it is appointed to produce.
Remember, therefore, that he, to whom the punishment of another is
sweet; though his act may be just with respect to others, with respect
to himself it is a deed of darkness, and abhorred by the Almighty.'
HAMET, who had stood abstracted in the contemplation of the new injury
he had suffered, while OMAR was persuading him not to revenge it,
started from his posture in all the wildness of distraction; and
bursting away from OMAR, with an ardent and furious look hasted toward
the palace, and was soon out of sight.

CHAP. XV.

In the mean time, ALMORAN, after having effected the transformation, was
met, as he was going to the apartment of ALMEIDA, by Osmyn. Osmyn had
already experienced the misery of dependent greatness, that kept him
continually under the eye of a capricious tyrant, whose temper was
various as the gales of summer, and whose anger was sudden as the bolt
of heaven; whose purpose and passions were dark and impetuous as the
midnight storm, and at whose command death was inevitable as the
approach of time. When he saw ALMORAN, therefore, in the likeness of
HAMET, he felt a secret desire to apprize him of his situation, and
offer him his friendship.

ALMORAN, who with the form assumed the manners of HAMET, addressed Osmyn
with a mild though mournful countenance: 'At length,' said he, 'the will
of ALMORAN alone is law; does it permit me to hold a private rank in
this place, without molestation?' 'It permits,' said Osmyn, 'yet more;
he has commanded, that you should have admittance to ALMEIDA.' ALMORAN,
whose vanity betrayed him to flatter his own power in the person of
HAMET, replied with a smile: 'I know, that ALMORAN, who presides like a
God in silent and distant state, reveals the secrets of his will to
thee; I know that thou art'--'I am,' said Osmyn, 'of all thou seest,
most wretched.' At this declaration, ALMORAN turned short, and fixed his
eyes upon Osmyn with a look of surprize and anger: 'Does not the favour
of ALMORAN,' said he, 'whose smile is power, and wealth, and honour,
shine upon thee?' 'My lord,' said Osmyn, 'I know so well the severity of
thy virtue, that if I should, even for thy sake, become perfidious to
thy brother'--ALMORAN, who was unable to preserve the character