Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 42.25.2

42.25.2

and let us praise His goodness endlessly, for his having condescended to make use of so humble and so inadequate an instrument, as this penman (who is the last of men), to array this third volume in the robes of style and arrangement, and to attire it with the ornament of completion and finishing, in such a manner as to promise these fragile leaves the permanency which was hoped for, and intended for them. Praise be to Him! that in the composition of this Work, exactitude and impartiality have been, to the best of my abilities, objects of scrupulous attention ; and that they afford the satisfaction to think that the labour attending such a performance, has been brought to a proper end. I rely so far on the goodness of that Omnipotent Being, as to hope that He shall vouchsafe to irradiate these humble leaves in such a manner, as shall render them capable of illuming the hearts, and of enlightening the understandings, of the ruling men of this age, by giving to the unadequate and feeble ink of this humblest of men all the qualities of a Collyrium, capable of deterging the eyes of men of knowledge. May His beneficence bestow such an efficacy, and such a currency, on the paradisical maxims, sprinkled on every part of this composition, as may render them wholesome and savoury, like those waters said to flow from Heaven, and equally salutary and palatable to the governing part of mankind !