But though
we are acting, as we believe, under a divine impulse, it is our duty to
select the most fitting human agents to accomplish a celestial mission.
We have thought, therefore, that it should devolve on Syria and Arabia,
countries in which our God has even dwelt, and with which he has been
from the earliest days in direct and regular communication, to undertake
the solemn task. Two races of men, alike free, one inhabiting the
desert, the other the mountains, untainted by any of the vices of the
plains, and the virgin vigour of their intelligence not dwarfed by the
conventional superstitions of towns and cities, one prepared at once
to supply an unrivalled cavalry, the other an army ready equipped of
intrepid foot-soldiers, appear to us to be indicated as the natural
and united conquerors of the world. We wish to conquer that world, with
angels at our head, in order that we may establish the happiness of man
by a divine dominion, and crushing the political atheism that is now
desolating existence, utterly extinguish the grovelling tyranny of
self-government.'
The Queen of the Ansarey listened with deep and agitated attention to
Tancred. When he had concluded, she said, after a moment's pause, 'I
believe also in the necessity of the spiritual supremacy of our Asia.
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