I salute Ebn Thaher,
who has so much obliged us.
The prince of Persia was not satisfied to read the letter once;
he thought he had read it with too little attention, and
therefore read it again with more leisure; and as he read,
sometimes he uttered sighs, sometimes he wept, and sometimes he
discovered transports of joy and affection, as one who was
touched with what he read. In a word, he could not keep his eyes
off those characters drawn by so lovely a hand, and therefore
began to read it a third time. Then Ebn Thaher told him that the
confident could not stay, and he ought to think of giving an
answer. Alas! cried the prince, how would you have me answer so
kind a letter? In what terms shall I express the trouble that I
am in? My spirit is tossed with a thousand tormenting things, and
my thoughts destroy one another the same momunt they are
conceived, to make way for more; and so long as my body suffers
by the impressions of my mind, how shall I be able to hold paper,
or a reed [Footnote The Arabians, Persians, and Turks, when they
write, hold the paper ordinarily upon their knees with their left
hands, and write with their right, with a little reed or cane cut
like our pens; this cane is hollow, and resembles our reeds, but
is harder.], to write? Having spoken thus, he took out of a
little desk paper, cane, and ink.
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