Storia do Mogor 281.10.1

281.10.1

These were words worthy of a great sovereign, if he also carried them in his heart. But I have always found, judging by a long experience, that he and all the Mahomedans direct their actions by their own convenience, and for the sole welfare of their own bodies. This is the cause that there are many princes and lords who give alms daily, not from love of God, but merely in the hope that God may grant them good success in their affairs. It is also with this thought that there are many who out of superstition place under their pillow at night what they want to give away in charity. The prince Shah 'Alam was accustomed to thus place aside ten rupees every night with this object. But let us return to the subject of the new tax. Begam Sahib, eldest sister of the king, a very generous princess, wanted to make a fresh appeal. With this intent she paid her brother a visit, and entreated most humbly that he would not go farther with this affair; and to touch him more deeply she brought forward a comparison. 'Just think, sire,' said she, 'that the lands of Hindustan are like a vast ocean; your majesty and all the other members of our royal family are like ships navigating its waters and ploughing through its waves. Where is there any sovereign prince who would desire to load with imposts the sea on which he sails? Who has ever seen the physician pay the patient? From this reasoning I conclude, with your majesty's permission, that if the sick man has to pay the physician who cures him;