Thus, the jealousy of Almoran already enslaved him to the punctilios of state; and the most trifling circumstances involved him in perplexity, or fired him with resentment:  the friendship and fidelity of Omar stung him with rage, as insolent and intrusive; and though it determined him to an immediate interview with his brother, yet he was embarrassed how to procure it.  At first he rose, and was about to go to him; but he stopped short with disdain, upon reflecting, that it was an act of condescension which might be deemed an acknowledgement of superiority:  he then thought of sending for Hamet to come to him; but this he feared might provoke him, as implying a denial of his equality:  at length he determined to propose a meeting in the chamber of council, and was just dispatching an officer with the message, when Hamet entered the apartment.

The countenance of Hamet was flushed with joy, and his heart was warmed with the pleasing sensations of affection and confidence, by the same letter, from which Almoran had extracted the bitterness of jealousy and resentment, and as he had no idea that an act of courtesy to his brother could derogate from his own dignity or importance, he indulged the honest impatience of his heart to communicate the pleasure with which it overflowed:  he was, indeed, somewhat disappointed, to find no traces of satisfaction in the countenance of Almoran, when he saw the same paper in his hand, which had impressed so much upon his own.

He waited some time after the first salutations, without mentioning the scheme of government he was come to concert; because having observed that Almoran was embarrassed and displeased, he expected that he would communicate the cause, and pleased himself with the hope that he might remove it:  finding, however, that this expectation was disappointed, he addressed him to this effect: 

’How happy are we, my dear brother, in the wisdom and fidelity, of Omar! how excellent is the system of government that he has proposed! how easy and honourable will it be to us that govern, and how advantageous to the people that obey!’

‘The advantages,’ said Almoran, ’which you seem to have discovered, are not evident to me:  tell me, then, what you imagine they are, and I will afterwards give you my opinion.’

‘By establishing a system of laws as the rule of government,’ said Hamet, ’many evils will be avoided, and many benefits procured.  If the law is the will only of the sovereign, it can never certainly be known to the people:  many, therefore, may violate that rule of right, which the hand of the Almighty has written upon the living tablets of the heart, in the presumptuous hope, that it will not subject them to punishment; and those, by whom that rule is fulfilled, will not enjoy that consciousness of security, which they would derive from the protection of a prescribed law, which they have never broken.