Prayers of the pious, salutations of the saints, sacrifice for the holy spirits of the prophets and apostles, _blessing and peace be upon our prophet and upon them_! who are the guides of the roads, those who walk before us on the ways, parts of the whole. The meanest of the weak servants in the post of ignorance, taking upon himself to offer a noble present to the lordship of the country of God’s creatures in the empire of positive truths, and of the throne-ornaments belonging to the district of subtilties, represents, that the power of the omniscient and bountiful God (be his majesty displayed and his mercy diffused upon all!), has gratified the species of mankind, according to the exigency of natural genius, and the propensity of mind; and according to the choice of a special rule and the assumption of a particular religious opinion _of each_, in such a manner that a troop, having been invested with the garment of lawful religion, and another people with the golden texture of a convenient doctrine, they may become the manifestations of the lights of his perfect power and glorious miracle, and he knew by immediate knowledge, that such various kinds and cameleon-like forms, by which the inscrutable essence of his majesty can be viewed by glimpses, are means of possessing eternal beatitude, and obtaining the blessings of another world, inasmuch as the meanest of those who acquire the beauties of knowledge having arrived from the defile of ignorance and listlessness to the large expanse of the city of science and knowledge, may enjoy the advantages of concord, friendship, and society with each other.