religious wars?  The cruelty of beasts against other species is caused by hunger, the need of nourishment; the cruelty of man against man has no other motive than the vanity of his masters and the folly of his impertinent prejudices.  Theorists who try to make us believe that everything in the universe was made for man, are very much embarrassed when we ask them in what way can so many mischievous animals which continually infest our life here, contribute to the welfare of men.  What known advantage results for God’s friend to be bitten by a viper, stung by a gnat, devoured by vermin, torn into pieces by a tiger?  Would not all these animals reason as wisely as our theologians, if they should pretend that man was made for them?

XCVIII.—­AN ORIENTAL LEGEND.

At a short distance from Bagdad a dervis, celebrated for his holiness, passed his days tranquilly in agreeable solitude.  The surrounding inhabitants, in order to have an interest in his prayers, eagerly brought to him every day provisions and presents.  The holy man thanked God incessantly for the blessings Providence heaped upon him.  “O Allah,” said he, “how ineffable is Thy tenderness toward Thy servants.  What have I done to deserve the benefactions which Thy liberality loads me with!  Oh, Monarch of the skies! oh, Father of nature! what praises could be worthy to celebrate Thy munificence and Thy paternal cares!  O Allah, how great are Thy gifts to the children of men!” Filled with gratitude, our hermit made a vow to undertake for the seventh time the pilgrimage to Mecca.  The war, which then existed between the Persians and the Turks, could not make him defer the execution of his pious enterprise.  Full of confidence in God, he began his journey; under the inviolable safeguard of a respected garb, he passed through without obstacle the enemies’ detachments; far from being molested, he receives at every step marks of veneration from the soldiers of both sides.  At last, overcome by fatigue, he finds himself obliged to seek a shelter from the rays of the burning sun; he finds it beneath a fresh group of palm-trees, whose roots were watered by a limpid rivulet.  In this solitary place, where the silence was broken only by the murmuring of the waters and the singing of the birds, the man of God found not only an enchanting retreat, but also a delicious repast; he had but to extend the hand to gather dates and other agreeable fruits; the rivulet can appease his thirst; very soon a green plot invites him to take sweet repose.  As he awakens he performs the holy cleansing; and in a transport of ecstasy, he exclaimed:  “O Allah!  How great is thy goodness to the children of men!” Well rested, refreshed, full of life and gayety, our holy man continues on his road; it conducts him for some time through a delightful country, which offers to his sight but blooming shores