imes expired. For
fear, however, of depopulating his dominions and making his palace
desolate, he but rarely gave way to his anger.

Being much addicted to the pleasures of the table, he sought by his
affability to procure agreeable companions; and he succeeded the better
as his generosity was unbounded, and his indulgences were unrestrained;
for he was by no means scrupulous, nor did he think, with the caliph
Omar Ben Abdalaziz, that it was necessary to make a hell of this world
to enjoy paradise in the next. He surpassed in magnificence all his
predecessors. The palace of Alkoremmi, which his father, Motassem, had
erected on the hill of Pied Horses, and which commanded the whole city
of Samarah was, in his idea, far too scanty. He added, therefore, five
wings, or rather other palaces, which he destined for the particular
gratification of each of his senses.

But the unquiet and impetuous disposition of the caliph would not allow
him to rest there; he had studied so much for amusement in the lifetime
of his father as to acquire a great deal of knowledge, though not a
sufficiency to satisfy himself--for he wished to know everything, even
sciences that did not exist. He was fond of engaging in disputes with
the learned and with the orthodox, but liked them not to push their
opposition with warmth; he stopped with presents the mouths of those
whose mouths could be stopped, while others, whom his liberality was
unable to subdue, he sent to prison to cool their blood, a remedy that
often succeeded.

The great prophet Mohammed, whose vicars the caliphs are, beheld with
indignation from his abode in the seventh heaven the irreligious conduct
of such a vice-regent.

"Let us leave him to himself," said he to the genii, who are always
ready to receive his commands. "Let us see to what lengths his folly and
impiety will carry him. If he run into excess we shall know how to
chastise him. Assist him, therefore, to complete the tower which, in
imitation of Nimrod, he hath begun, not, like that great warrior, to
escape being drowned, but from the insolent curiosity of penetrating the
secrets of heaven; he will not divine the fate that awaits him."

The genii obeyed, and when the workmen had raised their structures a
cubit in the daytime, two cubits more were added in the night. Vathek
fancied that even invisible matter showed a forwardness to subserve his
designs, and his pride arrived at its height when, having ascended for
th