He knew that Solyman, having considered the dispositions of his sons,
was of opinion, that if they had been blended in one person, they would
have produced a character more fit to govern in his stead, than either
of them alone: ALMORAN, he thought, was too volatile and warm; but he
suspected, that HAMET would sink into inactivity for want of spirit: he
feared alike ALMORAN'S love of enterprize, and HAMET'S fondness for
retirement: he observed, in HAMET, a placid easiness of temper, which
might suffer the reins of government to lie too loose; and, in ALMORAN,
a quickness of resentment, and jealousy of command, which might hold
them too tight: he hoped, therefore, that by leaving them a joint
dominion, he should blend their dispositions, at least in their effects,
in every act of government that should take place; or that, however they
should agree to administer their government, the public would derive
benefit from the virtues of both, without danger of suffering from their
imperfections, as their imperfections would only operate against each
other, while, in whatever was right, their minds would naturally concur,
as the coincidence of rectitude with rectitude is necessary and eternal.
But he did not consider, that different dispositions operating
separately upon two different wills, would appear in effects very unlike
those, which they would concur to produce in one: that two wills, under
the direction of dispositions so different, would seldom be brought to
coincide; and that more mischiefs would probably arise from the contest,
than from the imperfections of either alone.

But Solyman had so long applauded himself for his project before he
revealed it to OMAR, that OMAR found him too much displeased with any
objection, to consider its weight: and knowing that peculiar notions are
more rarely given up, than opinions received from others, and made our
own only by adoption, he at length acquiesced, lest he should by farther