and essence of good policy, for had he been brought up in the society of
those vagabonds, and confined to their service, he would have followed
their vicious courses. Your servant, however, trusts that he may be
instructed to associate with the virtuous, and take to the habits of the
prudent; for he is still a child, and the lawless and refractory
principles of that gang cannot have yet tainted his mind; and it is in
tradition that--_Whatever child is born, and he is verily born after the
right way of orthodoxy, namely Islamism, afterwards his father and his
mother bring him up as a Jew, Christian, or Guebre_.--The wife of Lot
associated with the wicked, and her posterity failed in the gift of
prophecy; the dog of the seven sleepers (at Ephesus) for some time took
the path of the righteous, and became a rational being."

He said this, and a body of the courtiers joined him in intercession,
till the king acceded to the youth's pardon, and answered: "I gave him
up, though I saw not the good of it.--Knowest thou what Zal said to the
heroic Rustem: 'Thou must not consider thy foe as abject and helpless. I
have often found a small stream at the fountain-head, which, when
followed up, carried away the camel and its load.'"

In short, the vizir took the boy home, and educated him with kindness
and liberality. And he appointed him masters and tutors, who taught him
the graces of logic and rhetoric, and all manner of courtier
accomplishments, so that he met general approbation. On one occasion the
vizir was detailing some instances of his proficiency and talents in the
royal presence, and saying: "The instruction of the wise has made an
impression upon him, and his former savageness is obliterated from his
mind." The king smiled at this speech, and replied:--"The whelp of a
wolf must prove a wolf at last, notwithstanding he may be brought up by
a man."