and second of political disturbances. Once the individual is secure from the evil of these two things, nothing remains to delay his return to his country. So it should be with all the emigrants who are of my age. I see no reason to prevent these individuals from settling in their homeland and serving it through social and charitable works. And I acknowledge that a man possesses literary and charitable capacities which he can exercise on a wide scale within his own country and among his own kin.

— And what can our government do to smooth the road of return for them?

— Tempting the emigrant by way of self-interest is useless, for economically he will not find in Lebanon what lies before him in the Mahjar. We must therefore awaken his patriotic feeling and induce that retired man to come back to his country to spend his last days in its hills and valleys.

And I should like to mention here that the press in Lebanon gives it very bad publicity abroad. Nothing reaches us but news of corruption, disorder, and disturbances, which keeps our people away from such tainted airs. And so I hope your press will desist from this sort of thing and seek reform by some other road. The government too should ease the ways of visiting back and forth, and encourage the inhabitants to welcome the emigrants, so that they may feel that they are truly in their own country and among their own people.

His wife appears before us with her cheerful face and her kindly spirit, and looks at me with a searching eye; her husband introduces me to her, and I ask her in French:

— How did you find Lebanon?

— It is a very beautiful country. Its climate and its scenery delighted me, and I was overwhelmed by the generosity of its people and their fine hospitality. And I hope you will report my daughter's opinion too: she also has fallen in love with Lebanon and has begun to study Arabic — I do not know whether it is out of love of reading her father's poetry, or to ease her understanding with some Lebanese; for, as I have seen, she has no objection to marrying a Lebanese and staying here in his country.

The Lebanese have captured our hearts and made us forget our families and friends in the Mahjar.

I rise to leave, thanking the poet Saydah and his wife for their talk with me, and I go out of that enchanted place with the words of this gracious man echoing in my mind — a man who was absent from Lebanon for nearly half a century and returned to it only to complain that we do no successful publicity for it, while our worthy press makes bad matters worse and sows in men's breasts the seeds of ignorance and want. Come now, Her Majesty the Fourth Estate: the forming of public opinion, the reforming of individuals, and the lofty aims of the journalist are not to be reached by this road that you are following.