Elsewhere the Ba?„b is at the pains to recommend the elder of
the half-brothers to attend to his junior's writing and spelling.
[Footnote: The Tablets (letters) are in the British Museum collection,
in four books of Ezel, who wrote the copies at Baha-'ullah's
dictation. The references are--I., No. 6251, p. 162; II., No. 5111,
p. 253, to which copy Rizwan Ali, son of Ezel, has appended 'The
brother of the Fruit' (Ezel); III., No. 6254, p. 236; IV., No. 6257,
p. 158.] Now it was, of course, worth while to educate Mirza Yah??ya,
whose feebleness in Arabic grammar was scandalous, but can we imagine
Baha-'ullah and all the other 'letters' being passed over by the Ba?„b
in favour of such an imperfectly educated young man? The so-called
'nomination' is a bare-faced forgery.
The statement of Gobineau that S??ubh??-i-Ezel belonged to the
'Letters of the Living' of the First Unity is untrustworthy.
[Footnote: _Fils du Loup_, p. 156 n.3.] M. Hippolyte Dreyfus has
favoured me with a reliable list of the members of the First Unity,
which I have given elsewhere, and which does not contain the name of
Mirza Yah??ya. At the same time, the Ba?„b may have admitted him into
the second hierarchy of 18[19]. [Footnote: _Fils du Loup_,
p. 163 n.1. 'The eighteen Letters of Life had each a _mirror_
which represented it, and which was called upon to replace it if it
disappeared. There are, therefore, 18 Letters of Life and 18 Mirrors,
which constituted two distinct Unities.
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