'What are my debts to my
resources? That is the point. You cannot judge of a man by only knowing
what his debts are; you must be acquainted with his resources.'
'But your estates are mortgaged, your crops sold, at least you tell me
so,' said Eva, mournfully.
'Estates! crops! A man may have an idea worth twenty estates, a
principle of action that will bring him in a greater harvest than all
Lebanon.'
'A principle of action is indeed precious,' said Eva; 'but although you
certainly have ideas, and very ingenious ones, a principle of action is
exactly the thing which I have always thought you wanted.'
'Well, I have got it at last,' said Fakredeen; 'everything comes if a
man will only wait.'
'And what is your principle of action?'
'Faith.'
'In yourself? Surely in that respect you have not hitherto been
sceptical?'
'No; in Mount Sinai.'
'In Mount Sinai!'
'You may well be astonished; but so it is. The English prince has been
to Mount Sinai, and he has seen an angel. What passed between them I
do not yet know; but one thing is certain, he is quite changed by the
interview. He is all for action: so far as I can form an opinion in the
present crude state of affairs, it is not at all impossible that he may
put himself at the head of the Asian movement.
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