Category: William Beckford

William Beckford

My father,’ I replied, ‘I am fond of action. I like to succour the afflicted, and make people happy. Command that there be built for me a tower, from whose top I can see the whole earth, and thus discover the places where my help would be of most avai1.”To do good, without ceasing, to mankind, a race at once flighty and ungrateful, is a more painful task than you imagine,’ said Asfendarmod. ——After saying these words, my father motioned to us to retire; and immediately I found myself in a tower, built on the summit of Mount Caf – a tower whose outer walls were lined with numberless mirrors that reflected, though hazily and as in a kind of dream, a thousand varied scenes then being enacted on the earth. Asfendarmod’s power had indeed annihilated space, and brought me not only within sight of all the beings thus reflected in the mirrors, but also within sound of their voices and of the very words they uttered. (“The Story of The Peri Homaiouna”)