wn advantage results for God's friend to be bitten by a
viper, stung by a gnat, devoured by vermin, torn into pieces by a tiger?
Would not all these animals reason as wisely as our theologians, if they
should pretend that man was made for them?

XCVIII.--AN ORIENTAL LEGEND.

At a short distance from Bagdad a dervis, celebrated for his holiness,
passed his days tranquilly in agreeable solitude. The surrounding
inhabitants, in order to have an interest in his prayers, eagerly
brought to him every day provisions and presents. The holy man thanked
God incessantly for the blessings Providence heaped upon him. "O Allah,"
said he, "how ineffable is Thy tenderness toward Thy servants. What have
I done to deserve the benefactions which Thy liberality loads me with!
Oh, Monarch of the skies! oh, Father of nature! what praises could be
worthy to celebrate Thy munificence and Thy paternal cares! O Allah, how
great are Thy gifts to the children of men!" Filled with gratitude, our
hermit made a vow to undertake for the seventh time the pilgrimage to
Mecca. The war, which then existed between the Persians and the Turks,
could not make him defer the execution of his pious enterprise. Full of
confidence in God, he began his journey; under the inviolable safeguard
of a respected garb, he passed through without obstacle the enemies'
detachments; far from being molested, he receives at every step marks of
veneration from the soldiers of both sides. At last, overcome by
fatigue, he finds himself obliged to seek a shelter from the rays of the
burning sun; he finds it beneath a fresh group of palm-trees, whose
roots were watered by a limpid rivulet. In this solitary place, where
the silence was broken only by the murmuring of the waters and the
singing of the birds, the man of God found not only an enchanting
retreat, but also a delicious repast; he had but to extend the hand to
gather dates and other agreeable fruits; the rivulet can appease his
thirst; very soon a green plot invites him to take sweet repose. As he
awakens he performs the holy cleansing; and in a transport of ecstasy,
he exclaimed: "O Allah! HOW GREAT IS THY GOODNESS TO THE CHILDREN OF
MEN!" Well rested, refreshed, full of life and gayety, our holy man
continues on his road; it conducts him for some time through a
delightful country, which offers to his sight but blooming shores and
trees filled with fruit. Softened by this spectacle, he worships
incessantly the rich