OMAR was not without
suspicion, that the sentiments which ALMORAN had first expressed with
such vehemence of passion, were still predominant in his mind: but of
these suspicions he did not give the least hint to HAMET; not only
because to communicate suspicions is to accuse without proof, but
because he did not think himself at liberty to make an ill report of
another, though he knew it to be true. He approved the sentiments of
HAMET, as they had indeed been infused by his own instructions; and some
precepts and cautions were now added, which the accession of HAMET to a
share of the imperial power made particularly necessary.
'Remember,' said OMAR, 'that the most effectual way of promoting virtue,
is to prevent occasions of vice. There are, perhaps, particular
situations, in which human virtue has always failed: at least,
temptation often repeated, and long continued, has seldom been finally
resisted. In a government so constituted as to leave the people exposed
to perpetual seduction, by opportunities of dissolute pleasure or
iniquitous gain, the multiplication of penal laws will only tend to
depopulate the kingdom, and disgrace the state; to devote to the
scymitar and the bow-string, those who might have been useful to
society, and to leave the rest dissolute turbulent and factious.
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