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A mild dignified voice bade me be seated, and then continued: "Praise be to God that thou has attained! .. Thou has 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 stirrer up 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 strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come.. Do not you in Europe need this also? Is not this that which Christ foretold? .. Yet do we see your kings and rulers lavishing their treasures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that which would conduce to the happiness of mankind.. These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family.. Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind..." (30:3) 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 gain or lose by their diffusion. - Introduction to A Traveller's Narrative (Episode of the Bab), pp. xxxix-xl.
(30:4)
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