The Dabistan

517

are means of possessing eternal beatitude, and obtain-
ing the blessings of another world, inasmuch as the
meanest of those who acquire the beauties of know-
ledge having arrived from the defile of ignorance and
listlessness to the large expanse of the city of science
and knowledge, may enjoy the advantages of con-
cord, friendship, and society with each other.

In this manner, one day, when the discourse fell
upon this subject in the service of the master of
favour, the head of the sages'of the age, the une-
qualled jewel of the multitude of the possessors of
beneficence, the ornament of the council of experi-
ence and of success, the splendor of the assembly of
the distinction of merit and of happiness, the man
of exalted designs, knowing the enigmas of science
and wisdom, and endowed with eminent virtues,
WILLIAM BAYLEY SAHEB/ (may his prosperity be
everlasting in the ways of celebrity), I expressed my
sentiments as follows: That which embraces the dif-
ferent tenets and sects, demonstrating in. what re-
spects they are either agreeing or conflicting with
each other, is an object not destitute of difficulty
nor of pretension; but the book called Dabisldn, is
incomparable for the assemblage of various tenets,
and of general and particular creeds. Direction
was therefore given that, as to execute the trans-

» William Buttcrworth Bayley, Esq., now a director of the Hon. East
India Company.—(See Preliminary Discourse, vol. I. part III. § 2.)