Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/261

249 God, kissed the king’s hands and called down blessings upon him. Then said the king, ‘O Shimas, what hath betided thee that thou seekest admission unto me?’ And he answered, saying, ‘This long while have I not looked upon the face of my lord the king and indeed I longed sore for thee. So, behold, I have seen thy countenance and come to thee with a word which I would fain say to thee, O king stablished in all prosperity.’ Quoth the king, ‘Say what seemeth good to thee;’ and Shimas said, ‘O king, verily God the Most High hath endowed thee, for all the tenderness of thy years, with knowledge and wisdom such as He never vouchsafed unto any of the kings before thee, and hath fulfilled the measure of His bounties to thee with the kingship; and He loveth not that thou depart from that wherewith He hath endowed thee unto other than it, by means of thy disobedience to Him; wherefore it behoveth thee not to wage war upon Him with thy treasures, but to be mindful of His injunctions and obedient unto His commandments. This I say because I have seen thee, this while past, forget thy father and his injunctions and forswear his covenant and neglect his admonition and renounce his justice and wise governance, remembering not God’s bounty to thee neither requiting it with gratitude to Him.’

‘How so?’ asked the king. ‘And what is the manner of this?’ ‘The manner of it,’ replied Shimas, ‘is that thou neglectest to attend to the affairs of the state and that which God hath committed unto thee of the interests of thy subjects and surrenderest thyself to thine own inclinations, in that which they make fair to thee of the paltry lusts of the world. Verily it is said that the welfare of the state and the faith and the people is of the things over which it behoveth the king to keep watch; wherefore it is my counsel, O king, that thou look well to the issue