my own.  Now I was resolv’d that you should be the first, to whom I would Communicate what I knew about these matters, both upon the account of the Intimacy of our Friendship, and your Candor and Integrity.  Only observe, that my discovering to you the Ends which I attain’d in this way, without proving the Principles to you first, by which those Ends are attain’d, will do you no more Service, than any other Story which you receive by tradition, or any thing told you in general, of which you don’t know how to make a particular application.  Presuming that you will accept it kindly, not for any merit of the Author, but upon the account of our Friendship and Acquaintance; and I heartily desire that you mayn’t stop here, but aspire to a loftier degree:  for this is so far from being able to bring you to those heights, that is not sufficient to save you.  Now I would lead you by the same paths which I have walk’d in before you, and make you steer by the same Compass, till you arrive at the same Point, and see with your own Eyes what I have seen before you, so as not to take it on trust any longer from me, but to experience it yourself.  But this is a matter which will not only require considerable Time, but also that you are free and disingag’d from all manner of Business, and follow it close with great Application.  And if you are really in earned, and set about it heartily, you will rejoyce as one that has Travelled all Night do’s when the Sun rises upon him, and will receive a Blessing for your Labour, and take delight in your Lord, and he will delight in you.  And for my own part, you will find me, according to your own Hearts desire, just such an one as you could wish; and I hope that I shall lead you in the right way, free from Evils and Dangers:  and really I perceive some Glimmerings now, by the help of which I shall inflame your Desire, and put you upon entring this way, by telling you the Story of Hai Ebn Yokdhan and Asal, and Salaman (as Avicenna calls them); in which, those that understand themselves right will find matter of Improvement, and worthy their Imitation.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 1:  In the Name, &c—­This is the usual Form with which the Mahometans begin all their Writings, Books and Epistles.  Every Chapter in the Alcoran begins so, and all their Authors have followed this way ever price.  The Eastern Christians, to distinguish themselves from the Mahometans, begin their Writings with Bismi’labi Wa’libni, _&c_.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, One God:_and so do the_ AEthiopians. We here in England observe something like this in Wills, where the usual Form is, In the Name of God, Amen.]