.
.
.
Among
those who came to visit Baha'u'llah at this time was the famous orientalist,
Professor
Edward G. Brown, of the University of Cambridge,
who has recorded his impressions of the meeting. He writes:
.
"
The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe
it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority
sat on that
ample
brow ....No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself
before
one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might
envy
and emperors sigh for in vain! A mild dignified voice bade
me
be seated, and then continued :
'
"
Praise be to God
that thou hast attained
!... Thou hast come to see a prisoner and an exile.... We desire but the
good of the world and the happiness of the nations; yet they deem us
a
stirrup of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment....
That all nations
should
become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds
of affection
and
unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of
religion
should cease, and differences of race be annulled - what harm is
there
in this?...Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strives, these ruinous
wars
shall pass away, and the " Most Great Peace
" shall
come....
let not a man glory in this, that
he loves his
country;
let him rather glory in this, that he loves
his
kind.... "
,
Such,
so far as I can recall them, were the words which, besides many others,
I heard from Beha. Let those who read them consider well with themselves
whether such doctrines
merit
death and bonds, and whether the world is more likely to gain or lose by
their
diffusion. " B
62
.
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