lance—­Soldiers be still; if God supports the Sultan he needs not your aid; if his sword suffices, he needs not yours; let us see what he can do alone.  The soldiers grounded their arms; and behold these masters of the world, feeble as the meanest of their subjects!  People! know that those who govern are your chiefs, not your masters; your agents, not your owners; that they have no authority over you, but by you, and for you; that your wealth is yours and they accountable for it; that, kings or subjects, God has made all men equal, and no mortal has the right to oppress his fellow-creatures.

But this nation and its chiefs have mistaken these holy truths.  They must abide then the consequences of their blindness.  The decree is past; the day approaches when this colossus of power shall be crushed and crumbled under its own mass.  Yes, I swear it, by the ruins of so many empires destroyed.  The empire of the Crescent shall follow the fate of the despotism it has copied.  A nation of strangers shall drive the Sultan from his metropolis.  The throne of Orkhan shall be overturned.  The last shoot of his trunk shall be broken off; and the horde of Oguzians,* deprived of their chief, shall disperse like that of the Nagois.  In this dissolution, the people of the empire, loosened from the yoke which united them, shall resume their ancient distinctions, and a general anarchy shall follow, as happened in the empire of the Sophis;** until there shall arise among the Arabians, Armenians, or Greeks, legislators who may compose new states.

* Before the Turks took the name of their chief, Othman I., they bore that of Oguzians; and it was under this appellation that they were driven out of Tartary by Gengis, and came from the borders of Giboun to settle themselves in Anatolia.

** In Persia, after the death of Thamas-Koulikan, each province had its chief, and for forty years these chiefs were in a constant state of war.  In this view the Turks do not say without reason:  “Ten years of a tyrant are less destructive than a single night of anarchy.”

Oh! if there were on earth men profound and bold! what elements for grandeur and glory!  But the hour of destiny has already come; the cry of war strikes my ear; and the catastrophe begins.  In vain the Sultan leads forth his armies; his ignorant warriors are beaten and dispersed.  In vain he calls his subjects; their hearts are ice.  Is it not written? say they, what matters who is our master?  We cannot lose by the change.

In vain the true believers invoke heaven and the prophet.  The prophet is dead; and heaven without pity answers: 

Cease to invoke me.  You have caused your own misfortunes; cure them yourselves.  Nature has established laws; your part is to obey them.  Observe, reason, and profit by experience.  It is the folly of man which ruins him; let his wisdom save him.  The people are ignorant; let them gain instruction.  Their chiefs are wicked; let them correct and amend; for such is Nature’s decree.  Since the evils of society spring from cupidity and ignorance, men will never cease to be persecuted, till they become enlightened and wise; till they practise justice, founded on a knowledge of their relations and of the laws of their organization.*