Carazan, the merchant of Bagdat, was eminent throughout all the East
for his avarice and his wealth: his origin was obscure, as that of the
spark, which by the collision of steel and adamant, is struck out of
darkness; and the patient labour of persevering diligence alone had made
him rich. It was remembered, that when he was indigent, he was thought to
be generous; and he was still acknowledged to be inexorably just. But
whether in his dealings with men he discovered a perfidy which tempted
him to put his trust in gold, or whether in proportion as he accumulated
wealth he discovered his own importance to increase, Carazan prized it
more as he used it less; he gradually lost the inclination to do good, as
he acquired the power; and as the hand of time scattered snow upon his
head, the freezing influence extended to his bosom.
But though the door of Carazan was never opened by hospitality, nor his
hand by compassion, yet fear led him constantly to the mosque at the
stated hours of prayer; he performed all the rites of devotion with the
most scrupulous punctuality, and had thrice paid his vows at the temple
of the Prophet. That devotion which arises from the love of God, and
necessarily includes the love of man, as it connects gratitude with
beneficence, and exalts that which was moral to divine, confers new
dignity upon goodness, and is the object not only of affection but of
reverence. On the contrary, the devotion of the selfish, whether it be
thought to avert the punishment which every one wishes to be inflicted,
or to insure it by the complication of hypocrisy with guilt, never
fails to excite indignation and abhorrence. Carazan, therefore, when he
had locked his door, and turning round with a look of circumspective
suspicion proceeded to the mosque, was followed by every eye with silent
malignity: the poor suspended their supplication when he passed by; and
though he was known by every man, no one saluted him.
Such had long been the life of Carazan, and such was the character
which he had acquired, when notice was given by proclamation, that he
was removed to a magnificent building in the centre of the city, that
his table should be spread for the public, and that the stranger should
be welcome to his bed, the multitude soon rushed like a torrent to his
door, where they beheld him distributing bread to the hungry, and apparel
to the naked, his eye softened with compassion, and his cheek glowing
with delight. Every one gazed with astonishment at the prodigy; and the
murmur of innumerable voices increasing like the sound of approaching
thunder, Carazan beckoned with his hand; attention suspended the tumult
in a moment, and he thus gratified the curiosity which had procured him
audience.
To him who touches the mountains and they smoke, the Almighty and the
Most Merciful, be everlasting honour! he has ordained sleep to be the
minister of instruction, and his visions have reproved me in the night.
As I was sitting alone in my Haram, with my lamp burning before me,
computing the product of my merchandize, and exulting in the increase of
my wealth, I fell into a deep sleep, and the hand of him who dwells in
the third heaven was upon me. I beheld the angel of death coming forward
like a whirlwind, and he smote me before I could deprecate the blow. At
the same moment I felt myself lifted from the ground, and transported
with astonishing rapidity through the regions of the air.—The earth was
contracted to an atom beneath; and the stars glowed round me with a
lustre that obscured the sun. The gate of Paradise was new in sight; and
I was intercepted by a sudden brightness which no human eye could behold:
the irrevocable sentence was now to be pronounced; my day of probation
was past: and from the evil of my life nothing could be taken away, nor
could any thing be added to the good. When I reflected that my lot for
eternity was cast, which not all the powers of nature could reverse, my
confidence totally forsook me; and while I stood trembling and silent,
covered with confusion, and chilled with horror, I was thus addressed by
the radiance that flamed before me:—
“Carazan, thy worship has not been accepted, because it was not prompted
by love of God: neither can thy righteousness be rewarded, because it was
not produced by love of man: for thy own sake only hast thou rendered
to every man his due; and thou hast approached the Almighty only for
thyself. Thou hast not looked up with gratitude, nor around thee with
kindness. Around thee, thou hast indeed beheld vice and folly; but if
vice and folly could justify thy parsimony, would they not condemn the
bounty of heaven? If not upon the foolish and the vicious, where shall
the sun diffuse his light, or the clouds distil the dew? Where shall the
lips of the spring breathe fragrance, or the hand of autumn diffuse
plenty? Remember, Carazan, that thou hast shut compassion from thine
heart, and grasped thy treasures with a hand of iron: thou hast lived for
thyself; and, therefore, henceforth for ever thou shalt subsist alone.
From the light of heaven, and from the society of all beings shalt thou
be driven; solitude shall protract the lingering hours of eternity, and
darkness aggravate the horrors of despair.” At this moment I was driven
by some secret and irresistible power through the glowing system of
creation, and passed innumerable worlds in a moment. As I approached
the verge of nature, I perceived the shadows of total and boundless
vacuity deepen before me, a dreadful region of eternal silence, solitude,
and darkness! Unutterable horror seized me at the prospect, and this
exclamation burst from me with all the vehemence of desire: “O! that I
had been doomed for ever to the common receptacle of impenitence and
guilt! there society would have alleviated the torment of despair, and
the rage of fire could not have excluded the comfort of light. Or, if I
had been condemned to reside in a comet, that would return but once in
a thousand years to their regions of light and life; the hope of these
periods, however distant, would cheer men in the dread interval of cold
and darkness, and the vicissitude would divide eternity into time.” While
this thought passed over my mind, I lost sight of the remotest star, and
the last glimmering of light was quenched in utter darkness. The agonies
of despair every moment increased, as every moment augmented my distance
from the last habitable world. I reflected with intolerable anguish, that
when ten thousand thousand years had carried me beyond the reach of all
but that power who fills infinitude, I should still look forward into an
immense abyss of darkness, through which I should still drive without
succour and without society, farther and farther still, for ever and for
ever. I then stretched out my hand towards the regions of existence, with
an emotion that awaked me. Thus have I been taught to estimate society,
like every other blessing, by its loss. My heart is warmed to liberality;
and I am zealous to communicate the happiness which I feel, to those from
whom it is derived; for the society of one wretch, whom in the pride
of prosperity I would have spurned from my door, would, in the dreadful
solitude to which I was condemned, have been more highly prized than the
gold of Afric, or the gems of Golconda.
At this reflection upon his dream, Carazan became suddenly silent, and
looked upward in ecstacy of gratitude and devotion. The multitude were
struck at once with the precept and example; and the Caliph, to whom the
event was related, that he might be liberal beyond the power of gold,
commanded it to be recorded for the benefit of posterity.