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On Love and Youth

of the Arabs, having been informed of the relations subsisting between Laila and Mejnûn, with an account of the latter's insanity, to the effect that he had, in spite of his great accomplishments and eloquence, chosen to roam about in the desert and to let go the reins of self-control from his hands; he ordered him to be brought to his presence, and, this having been done, he began to reprove him, and to ask him what defect he had discovered in the nobility of the human soul, that he adopted the habits of beasts and abandoned the society of mankind?

Mejnûn replied: "Many friends have blamed me for loving her, will they not see her one day and understand my excuse? Would that those who are reproving me could see thy face, O ravisher of hearts! That instead of a lemon, in thy presence they might needlessly cut their hands, that the truth may bear witness to the assertion: This is he for whose sake ye blamed me.'"

The King expressed a wish to see the beauty of Laila, in order to ascertain the cause of so much distress; accordingly he ordered her to be searched for. The encampments of various Arab families having been visited, she was found, conveyed to