Omar, the son of Hassan, had passed seventy-five years in honour and
prosperity. The favour of three successive califs had filled his house
with gold and silver; and whenever he appeared, the benedictions of the
people proclaimed his passage.
Terrestrial happiness is of short continuance. The brightness of the
flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own
odours. The vigour of Omar began to fail, the curls of beauty fell from
his head, strength departed from his hands, and agility from his feet.
He gave back to the calif the keys of trust, and the seals of secrecy;
and sought no other pleasure for the remains of life than the converse of
the wise, and the gratitude of the good.
The powers of his mind were yet unimpaired. His chamber was filled by
visitants, eager to catch the dictates of experience, and officious to
pay the tribute of admiration. Caled, the son of the viceroy of Egypt,
entered every day early, and retired late. He was beautiful and eloquent;
Omar admired his wit and loved his docility. Tell me, said Caled, thou
to whose voice nations have listened, and whose wisdom is known to the
extremities of Asia, tell me how I may resemble Omar the prudent. The
arts by which you have gained power and preserved it, are to you no
longer necessary or useful; impart to me the secret of your conduct, and
teach me the plan upon which your wisdom has built your fortune.
Young man, said Omar, it is of little use to form plans of life. When
I took my first survey of the world, in my twentieth year, having
considered the various conditions of mankind, in the hour of solicitude,
I said thus to myself, leaning against a cedar which spread its branches
over my head: Seventy years are allowed to man; I have yet fifty
remaining: ten years I will allot to the attainment of knowledge, and ten
I will pass in foreign countries; I shall be learned, and therefore shall
be honoured; every city will shout at my arrival, and every student will
solicit my friendship. Twenty years thus passed will store my mind with
images which I shall be busy through the rest of my life in combining and
comparing. I shall revel in inexhaustible accumulations of intellectual
riches; I shall find new pleasures for every moment, and shall never more
be weary of myself. I will, however, not deviate too far from the beaten
track of life, but will try what can be found in female delicacy. I will
marry a wife beautiful as the Houries, and wise as Zobeide; with her I
will live twenty years within the suburbs of Bagdat, in every pleasure
that wealth can purchase, and fancy can invent. I will then retire to a
rural dwelling, pass my last days in obscurity and contemplation, and lie
silently down on the bed of death. Through my life it shall be my settled
resolution, that I will never depend upon the smile of princes; that I
will never stand exposed to the artifices of courts: I will never pant
for public honours, nor disturb my quiet with affairs of state. Such was
my scheme of life, which I impressed indelibly upon my memory.
The first part of my ensuing time was to be spent in search of knowledge;
and I know not how I was diverted from my design. I had no visible
impediments without, nor any ungovernable passions within. I regarded
knowledge as the highest honour and the most engaging pleasure; yet day
stole upon day, and month glided after month, till I found that seven
years of the first ten had vanished, and left nothing behind them. I now
postponed my purpose of travelling; for why should I go abroad while so
much remained to be learned at home? I immured myself for four years, and
studied the laws of the empire. The fame of my skill reached the judges;
I was found able to speak upon doubtful questions, and was commanded to
stand at the footstool of the calif. I was heard with attention, I was
consulted with confidence, and the love of praise fastened on my heart.
I still wished to see distant countries, listened with rapture to the
relations of travellers, and resolved some time to ask my dismission,
that I might feast my soul with novelty; but my presence was always
necessary, and the stream of business hurried me along. Sometimes I was
afraid lest I should be charged with ingratitude; but I still proposed to
travel, and therefore would not confine myself by marriage.
In my fiftieth year I began to suspect that the time of travelling was
past, and thought it best to lay hold on the felicity yet in my power,
and indulge myself in domestic pleasures. But at fifty no man easily
finds a woman beautiful as the Houries, and wise as Zobeide. I inquired
and rejected, consulted and deliberated, till the sixty-second year made
me ashamed of gazing upon girls. I had now nothing left but retirement,
and for retirement I never found a time, till disease forced me from
public employment.
Such was my scheme, and such has been its consequence. With an insatiable
thirst for knowledge, I trifled away the years of improvement; with a
restless desire of seeing different countries, I have always resided in
the same city; with the highest expectation of connubial felicity, I
have lived unmarried; and with unalterable resolutions of contemplative
retirement, I am going to die within the walls of Bagdat.