XIX. This is not the greatest inequality discernible; the most striking
consists, in the different security consequent to the one and the other
mode of conduct. The left-handed politician, both while he is seeking
his fortune, and even after he has obtained it, is exposed to great
danger. It is impossible, or next to impossible, that the artifices
and mal-practices of a man beset and watched by many rivals, should
not be discovered; and when these are once laid open, as this was the
cement of the whole fabric, its being reduced to ruins will not be
delayed an instant. It is very difficult says father Famianus Estrada,
for him to avoid a sudden fall, who stands on slippery ground, and is
press’d upon by many people: _Difficile est in lubrico stare diu, quem
plures impellunt._ This is the state of a deceitful politician; he
walks through a very slippery path, and is always upon false ground.
The people who labour to pull him down consist, of all those who
either envy his fortune, or abhor his evil deeds; which is as much as
to say, he has for enemies, both the good and the bad. How can a man
so circumstanced, support himself for any length of time? he must be
overthrown, and, as it frequently happens, may in his fall be dashed to
pieces: an energetic description of this is sung by Claudian:
_--------Jam non ad culmina rerum_
_Injustos crevisse queror: tolluntur in altum_
_Ut lapsu graviore ruant._
XX. The upright politician, on the contrary, meets no dangers on his
road, and has nothing to fear at his journey’s end. He is the more
safe, the more the grounds of his conduct are displayed. He has fewer
enemies than the other, because they can consist of none but bad
people. In case he is overthrown, his fall will not be precipitate
and violent, but soft and easy. His innocence will at least preserve
his life; and the worst that can befal him, is being reduced to his
former state; but it most commonly happens, that evil-intentioned
people do not succeed in their attacks upon him, and that the shafts of
their malice recoil and wound themselves, which oftentimes, affords
honour and triumph to the party accused. The history of a politician
of integrity, although an infidel by his religion, occurs to me at
present, which is very applicable to the subject we are treating of.
The relation is taken from Tavernier’s Voyages, and it being new and
pleasant, I shall give a brief recital of it.
XXI. Mahomed Alibeg, high steward to the King of Persia, was, from
being a poor shepherd, raised to that elevated post, in the beginning
of the last century. The King, one day when he was hunting, met with
him in the mountains, where he was playing on his flute, and attending
his flocks. For his amusement, he asked him some questions, and, taken
with the vivacity and acuteness of the lad’s answers, he carried him
with him to his palace; where having him instructed, the rectitude
of his heart, and the clearness of his understanding, soon gained
the affection and confidence of the King, who advanc’d him rapidly
from charge to charge, till he at last placed him in the office of
high steward. His inflexible integrity, and his aversion to bribes,
a thing very rare among the Mahometans, raised him powerful enemies;
but finding him so thoroughly possessed of the confidence of his
master, they could not venture to act in a hostile way against him
during the King’s life. After his death, when his successor who was
a young man mounted the throne, they suggested to him, that Mahomet
had subtracted vast sums from the Royal Treasury. The Prince ordered
him to make up his accounts in fifteen days, to which Mahomet replied
with intrepidity, that so much delay was not necessary, and that if his
Majesty would be pleased to go with him immediately to the Treasury
Office, he would there deliver them to him. The King went, followed
by all the accusers, but he found every thing in such fine order, and
the books of accounts so exactly and accurately stated, with which
all other circumstances corresponded, that nobody had a word to say.
From thence the King proceeded to Mahomet’s house, where he could not
help admiring the moderation of the furniture, and the poverty of the
decorations. One of the enemies of the favourite observing the door of
a room shut, and secured with three strong chains, hinted it to the
King, who asked Mahomet what he had got shut up in that room. Sir,
answered Mahomet, here I keep my own things, all you have hitherto
seen belongs to your Majesty; and having said this he opened the door.
The King entered the room, and after looking all round, saw nothing
but the following particulars hanging on nails drove into the wall. A
leathern doublet, a wallet, a shepherd’s crook, and a flute. The King
was viewing them with astonishment, when Mahomet throwing himself at
his feet, said, Sir, this is the habit, and these are the goods which
I was possessed of, when the King your father brought me to court.
These were what belonged to me then, and these are what I have now, and
these only I claim as my own; and as they are so, I supplicate with
the greatest submission, that your Majesty will permit me to enjoy
them, by returning to the mountains from whence my fortune brought
me forth. Here the King, unable to refrain from tears, embraced the
generous favourite; and not content with this mark of his approbation,
immediately stript off his royal robes, and ordered Mahomet to wear
them, which in Persia, is esteemed the highest honour a King can confer
on a subject. The result of all this, was, that Mahomet during his
whole life after, preserved the firm confidence and love of his Prince.
What pity it is, that this disinterestedness, this nobleness of mind,
this rectitude, this moderation, should be all lodged in an infidel!