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PRINCE OF JERUSALEM. 205
Sat.-, of M.\ What remains for me to say, O King?
Shall I dare to differ in opinion from the Satrap of
Assyria, who has received the plaudits of your whole
court ? He contends there is nothing greater than
yourself. O King! I acknowledge your greatness
— !
the eclat of your name, the splendor of your throne,
the magnitude of your power, and the grandeur of
your riches.
But greater than all this is the empire of Beauty
This softens the heart of the most ferocious, gains
over judges the most severe, and triumphs over mas-
ters the most imperious. Deprived of fortune, it
needs it not. If devoid of worldly rank and dignity,
it rises above all. All stations of life are subject to
it. The power of the gods of the earth, though re-
spected and feared, is as nothing in comparison with
the power of Beauty.
The will of sovereign rulers often depends upon its
caprice. "What was my daughter Apame? With-
out wealth or rank, before her beauty elevated her
to the nuptial bed of Darius. To-day this great
Prince rules over you. In her turn, she reigns over
him. He wills what she desires—he does what she
approves. Does she rejoice, he is pleased. Is she
melancholy, he is afflicted. She is the soul that gives
the impress and the bias to all his movements. From
her he learns to find something more interesting than
kingly greatness. She sees him at her feet, and he
voluntarily submits all his imperial glory to her
beauty Therefore I say, " Beauty."