with the king sent him a moon-faced damsel.--Such was this delicate
crescent of the moon, and fascination of the holy, this form of an
angel, and decoration of a peacock, that let them once behold her, and
continence must cease to exist in the constitutions of the chaste.

And, in like manner, there followed her a youth of such rare beauty and
exquisite symmetry, that the powerful grasp of his charms had broken the
wrists of the pious, and tied up behind their backs the arms of the
upright.--Mankind stand around him _parched with thirst, whilst he, who
seems thy cup-bearer, will give thee no drink_.--The eye could not be
satiated by beholding him, like the dropsical man with water by looking
at the river Euphrates.

The hermit began to relish dainty food, and to wear sumptuous apparel;
to regale himself with fruits, perfumes, and sweetmeats; and to behold
with delight the charms of the handmaid and bondsman. And the wise have
said, "The ringlets of the lovely are a chain on the feet of reason, and
a snare for the bird of wisdom."--To the mystery of thy service I
devoted my heart, religion, and all my mental faculties; verily, I am
now the bird of reason, and thou art the lure and bait.

In short, the good fortune of his many years of sanctity ran to waste,
as has been said:--"Whatever he had laid up from theologician, sage, or
saint, or of recondite knowledge from the eloquent and pure of spirit,
now that he had stooped to mix with a vile world, like the feet of a fly
he got entangled in its honey."

The king had the curiosity of making him another visit, and found the
hermit much altered from what he first saw of him. His face had become
fair and ruddy, and his body plump and jolly; and he was reclining at
his ease on cushions of brocade, and had the Houri-like damsel lolling
by his side, and the fairy-formed youth holding a fly-flap of peacock's
feathers in his hand, and standing by him in attendance. The king
congratulated him upon his portly appearance, and they entered together
upon a variety of topics, till his majesty concluded by observing, "In
this world I have an affection for these two orders of mankind, the
learned and the recluse." A philosophic vizir, and man of much worldly
experience, happened to be present. He said: "O sire! such is the canon
of affection that you should confer a benefit on each. Give money to the
learned man, that he may teach others; and give nothing to the hermit,
that he may rema