cattered the roses of
his cheek, and brambles and thorns are shooting from his grave.'

"After my separation from him I came to a steady and firm
determination, that during my remaining life I would fold up the carpet
of enjoyment, and never re-enter the gay circle of society:--Were it not
for the dread of its waves, much would be the profits of a voyage at
sea; were it not for the vexation of the thorn, charming might be the
society of the rose. Yesterday I was walking stately as a peacock in the
garden of enjoyment; to-day I am writhing like a snake from the absence
of my mistress."

XVIII.

To a certain king of Arabia they were relating the story of Laila and
Mujnun, and his insane state, saying: "Notwithstanding his knowledge and
wisdom, he has turned his face towards the desert, and abandoned himself
to distraction." The king ordered that they bring him into his presence;
and he reproved him, and spoke, saying: "What have you seen unworthy in
the noble nature of man that you should assume the manners of a brute,
and forsake the enjoyment of human society?"

Mujnun wept and answered:--"_Many of my friends reproach me for my love
of her, namely Laila. Alas! that they could one day see her, that my
excuse might be manifest for me!_--Would to God that such as blame me
could behold thy face, O thou ravisher of hearts! that at the sight of
thee they might, from inadvertency, cut their own fingers instead of the
orange in their hands:--Then might the truth of the reality bear
testimony against the semblance of fiction, _what manner of person that
was for whose sake you were upbraiding me_."

The king resolved within himself, on viewing in person the charms of
Laila, that he might be able to judge what her form could be which had
caused all this misery, and ordered her to be produced in his presence.
Having searched through the Arab tribes, they discovered and presented
her before the king in the courtyard of his seraglio. He viewed her
figure, and beheld a person of a tawny complexion and feeble frame of
body. She appeared to him in a contemptible light, inasmuch as the
lowest menial in his harem, or seraglio, surpassed her in beauty and
excelled her in elegance. Mujnun, in his sagacity, penetrated what was
passing in the royal mind, and said: "It would behoove you, O king, to
contemplate the charms of Laila through the wicket of a Mujnun's eye,
in order that the miracle of such a spectacle might be illustrated to